Best I've Ever Had
by BeckaBear94
Summary: Rick is hurt - badly. Kate confesses her love and they have a... moment. But will she take it back? Can she let herself love? An undercover mission throws them together and they are forced to make some decisions.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Castle or any of the characters. I just really like them.**

_VWAP!_

Castle writhed in pain as the iron bar swung into his side again. He heard a crack and knew it was his ribs breaking. He wanted to scream and shout for mercy. But Castle could barely breathe let alone make sound travel out of his throat. He mentally shouted for Beckett to come to his aid.

_BAM!_

A ringed fist slammed into his temple, cutting any semblance of thought he had left. Blood spewed down is face. Why isn't Beckett here yet? Sweet, sweet Beckett, with her hair and her eyes, and the way she laughs and teases; he loved it, loved her. Castle needed to see that face again. And she would come, he had faith that she would find him. So, he would wait.

Another blow to the chest. He didn't scream, he never would allow the enemy that kind of satisfaction. But he couldn't breathe. Why couldn't he breathe? It was like a two ton elephant decided to sit on top of his chest. The pain was too much. Just as he felt his consciousness slip away from him, a storm of NYPD cops broke through the doors with their guns out and ready. Beckett rushed to him, cut the rope tying him up, and cupped his face in her hands.

Close enough that he could feel the warmth of her breath on his skin. Looking deeply into his eyes, she said, "Castle… Castle are you okay? You're going to be fine. Do you hear me? Fine."

Castle just looked at her. He could feel himself slipping away. He wanted to tell her that he would be fine as long as she stayed with him—that every ounce of this pain was worth being able to spend every day with her—that he could spend eternity in this pain if she would stay this close to him. If only he could bring himself to move, or speak, or fight off the ensuing darkness, he would close the last few inches between them.

But instead he let the blackness wash over him.

"Rick… I love you too."

He closed his eyes; that was all he needed to hear. She was still talking… something about hanging on. And he would. Castle knew that he would do anything within his power to stay alive for her. But not now. Now, he was powerless against his pressing unconsciousness.

…

When Castle woke up, he had no clue where he was. He tried to sit upright, sending pain shooting into his ribs. Glancing around, he remembered the case, getting beaten relentlessly, and lastly he remembered Katherine Beckett's last words to him. He saw that he was in a hospital room and became aware of a person at his side grasping his hand.

He looked at Beckett. He never wanted to stop looking at Beckett. She was looking past him through a window. Her eyes were red and puffy like she'd been crying and she clearly hadn't realized he was awake.

"Kate?"

"Castle. Hey. Look at you. You're a hot mess, you know? Broken ribs, collapsed lung, stitches, and a concussion. You look like you've been hit by a truck." She chuckled at this, unsuccessfully trying to make it sound like she wasn't mentally freaking out.

"Did you mean what you said? Before, I mean?" He didn't care about his injuries. He didn't care that he was in the hospital. He looked straight into Beckett's eyes. Puffy and red, they were still the most beautiful pair of eyes he has ever seen. His hand was still in hers, and he was glad she hadn't withdrawn it as soon as he awoke. A moment later, he was still awaiting an answer.

"Kate?"

He called her Kate. That always did things to her. Her stomach did little flips and she tried desperately to keep a straight face.

The thing was, Kate Beckett knew she washead over heels in love with Richard Castle. It was a matter of finally letting him in. She couldn't do it if she wasn't ready. It wouldn't be right, and with Castle, she had to do this thing right. And now he knows that she loves him. There was no point in denying it anymore. At last, she felt ready. Hopefully.

Inhaling sharply, she let it all out "Castle, I have never loved anyone the way I love you." Her cheeks reddened, but she willed herself to keep eye contact and not hide away.

An expression washed over his face like a four year old at Christmas. Elated, Castle tried to angle his body towards Beckett, wincing at the pain in the process.

Beckett saw this wince. She knew he was in immense pain. It was her fault. She was the reason he still worked with the NYPD. She felt personally responsible for every injury inflicted upon Castle.

Before she could get out her next words, Castle had his free hand at the base of her skull, pulling her into him. He kissed her with every ounce of love he had held back for the last three years. He kissed her passionately, but sweetly. She quickly gave into the kiss, giving everything she got. She felt his tongue asking for entrance and she complied.

Neither of them was prepared for this kiss. It was more intense than the most intimate of kisses; and while each one has had their respective relationships, never has a single kiss had so much meaning and so much love.

Beckett shifted from her chair to sit on the bed beside him. She bent over his torso and began trailing kisses down his jaw and onto his neck. Castle let out a deep moan. Beckett then moved her hand to rest on his chest for support, and Castle yelped.

Kate leaped away from Castle, wakening from her trance. She remembered his injuries and her guilt.

"Sorry," she said. "I… I… I'm sorry Rick. This is all my fault. You're hurt because of me. And you shouldn't care about me. You shouldn't want somebody like me in your life. I'm not good for you."

She was nearly in tears. Castle couldn't believe it. He had her. And he blew it in less than five minutes!

"Is this about the kiss? I thought it was pretty good myself." Of course, this was an understatement. Beckett's kisses could very possibly be as necessary as oxygen to him now.

"Best I've ever had," she chimed in quietly, almost in a whisper. "But all I can do is hurt you more. I'm dangerous Castle. I can't do this to you. I can't wrap you into all this." And with that, she ran from the room, she had no patience for the elevator, so she ran the seven flights of stairs, ran into the streets of New York, and kept running, blinded by her tears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, thank you all for your alerts and reviews! They tend to make me happy, which makes me write faster (hint, hint) I love you all; like Beckett to Castle, you are the muse to my writing. Therefore, without any further ado, I bring you Chapter 2.**

**Oh. And I don't own Castle or any of its characters. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.**

Castle wanted to go after her. He would have if he could move properly. Hell, he would have either way. But as soon as Beckett was gone, Martha and Alexis showed up.

"Hey Kiddo, how are you holding up?" Martha asked, putting on a show of a smile. "You look… well you look terrible."

"Dad! Dad I was so worried about you!" Alexis ran over to Castle, gently hugging him and letting out a sigh of relief.

Castle put on a fake smile and told them all he was going to be just fine. And that was mostly true. Physically, he would make a full recovery, the rest… well that would depend on Beckett, whom he so desperately wanted to go after right now.

It was twenty minutes of polite, but agonizing, conversation before Martha asked where Beckett was running off to so fast. Since Alexis was there, he didn't want to go into all of the messy details before getting her emotionally invested in anything, so he simply said she got an important phone call.

Martha was too clever not to notice her son's lies, so she sent Alexis to find some good coffee, not the instant crap one of the nurses had handed her. After Alexis was gone, Martha began the interrogation. Nothing could get past Martha.

"…She said she loved me," Castle finally admitted to his mother. He didn't go into all the details of their hospital make-out session, but he knew Martha could tell; she was Martha, after all.

And of course, she had sagely advice to offer: "Richard, this isn't one of your books, you don't know the ending. In life, you just have to accept the fact that not everything's gonna go your way. But, that doesn't mean it won't work out to an even better ending than you ever hoped for. Let Beckett sort things out first."

The timely Ryan and Esposito barged on in then.

"Castle, hey man, we've got some news on your case."

And with that, Martha took her queue to leave the boys alone.

"I have a case now? You arrested the people on the scene; they're guilty, case closed."

"Not quite, Gates wants their boss. She believes this is part of the Italian Mafia. Which means they are probably involved with the Pirelli murder case you had a lead on the other day. Gates 'needs this one for her career'." Ryan made little air quotes to show his annoyance with the idea of using the dead as steps in your career.

"Kay boys," Castle knew he could get Beckett back into this room under the premise of solving the case. Then they would talk. Talking was good… as long as he could get the words out right, although he rarely could with Beckett. "Bring in everything you have to me here. We can set up a murder board over there… and call Beckett. We have a murder to solve!"

Ryan and Esposito exchanged knowing, but nervous glances. "Rick…" Esposito started, "Gates threw her off the case. Sent her home."

_Plan foiled._

…

Beckett stormed into her apartment, slammed the door, and then leaned against it for support.

From the hospital, Beckett ran all the way to the precinct, without thinking, she ran straight up the stairs, barged into Gate's office and demanded that Richard Castle: civilian, had no place playing cop-dress-up. It was too dangerous.

She expected Iron Gates to agree, after all, she openly showed her dislike of Castle's police involvement.

But she didn't.

"Beckett, Castle is a necessary member of this team; he has proven that time and time again. Just because he gets hurt once does not mean I am going to throw away a valuable asset like him. You were shot and nearly died, you're still allowed to work here. Why shouldn't he?" Gates stared her down, thinking she won this argument, forgetting it was with Beckett.

"BECAUSE IT'S TOO DANGEROUS FOR HIM! HE'S HURT AND IT'S MY FAULT. CASTLE HAS A FAMILY TO TAKE CARE OF AND THIS IS NO PLACE FOR HIM" Beckett yelled, she knew how hard she fought to keep Castle with her, but that landed him in the hospital, which changed things. She grew up with a dead parent and she wasn't about to let Alexis do the same. Beckett was literally shaking with emotion.

"Beckett, you need to go home, clear your head. This case just became too close to you, so take some time off. Now."

Now she was home. With nothing to do. Instinctively, she thought of calling Castle, remembering with a twinge of pain and regret that she couldn't.

Beckett tried to watch some TV, but that wasn't active enough to keep her thoughts from drifting to Castle. Castle and his injuries. Castle in the hospital. Castle's lips on hers. Castle's moan. Castle's hand on her face, around her neck, on her skin. Castle.

Beckett tried to read a book to get her mind off things. Needless to say, that didn't work. Castle wrote books. Castle wrote books about her. Castle wrote books about her with steamy sex scenes.

Beckett was allowing herself to slip into the fantasy world of sex with Richard Castle when there was a knock on her door.

"Alexis! What are you doing here? How's your dad?" Surprised as she was by Alexis' out of the blue visit, she needed to know how her dad was. She still cared for him, and because of that, she needed to remove herself from Castle's life. But if he was doing good, maybe some of her guilt could be eased. Maybe, just maybe, she could stop feeling guilty someday. But she would never stop loving him.

"The doctors say that as long as his lung stays inflated all day tomorrow, he can come home the day after, given that he promises to take it easy." Alexis started out with the good news. "But honestly, he's doing pretty bad. Just mopes. He won't tell me what's wrong with him, but I think it has to do with the way you ran out earlier. Then Ryan said you weren't on his case anymore. Look, Beckett, I don't know what happened between you two, but he does love you, and you make him a better man, a better son, and a better father. You're good for him."

"Alexis…" Beckett didn't know what to say. Alexis really was as smart as her father. But, could she tell her that it was her fault her dad is in the hospital?

"Alexis, I'm not good for him. If he didn't work with me, he wouldn't be hurt right now."

"Beckett, he'll be fine. Those injuries will be gone in no time, but what you teach him, what you teach him about life and love, that's the stuff that will last. Please, just visit him. Talk to him? Please?"

Beckett couldn't really protest to anything Alexis just said, even though she wanted to.

In no time, they were both standing outside of Castle's hospital room. Beckett—frozen with fear—contemplated what she would say, what he would say… what they might or might not do. Beckett suddenly felt like she was going to vomit. She wasn't one to get nervous talking to boys, but Castle wasn't any old boy. She turned around to bolt, but Alexis just shoved her into the room and shut the door.

"Kate?" _Oh God… her first name… _

"Hey."


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok, so the last couple chapters were a lot of setting the scene, so thank you for bearing with me. But it's getting a move on. Thank you for all of your attention to this story! Here is chapter 3. And nothing has changed in the past few days… so I still do not own Castle or its characters.**

_Hey? Hey! That's the best she could come up with?_

Castle smiled like he had just won the lottery, and in his mind, he had no doubt that Katherine Beckett was better than any lottery prize.

"Hey." Castle replied.

The air became awkward as Beckett just stood in the doorway and Castle stared at her with his goofy smile.

Finally, Castle offered her the seat next to his bed, where she had been when they kissed, and she sat down.

"Do you love me?" Castle wasted no time being evasive.

"Do you love me?" Beckett countered. She knew the answer. She remembered hearing it like it was yesterday, his words as clear in her mind as the pain from the bullet that hit her. But, she knew she could never admit it first.

"More than anything," came Castle's certain reply with no hesitation.

And like that, she could no longer distance herself from him, no longer pretend that she didn't want him in her life. Her lips crashed down onto his. She reached for his chest, his hair, his neck, she wanted to touch him everywhere.

Castle was quick to respond, and put his hands at her waist, pulling her in. Both secretly hoped that this moment could last forever. Slowly, his fingers worked their way under the fabric of her shirt. His thumb rubbed small circular patterns on her waist and abdomen, gradually working up and up until a thumb grazed her breast.

Beckett let out a small moan… or gasp (Castle couldn't really tell) and broke away for air. Smiling, Beckett leaned back into Castle for more, when a whole team of doctors and nurses ran into the room.

Apparently, Castle's heart monitor was off the charts, and due to the intense make-out session, combined with the current state of his left lung, Castle was a little more than breathless.

Beckett felt awkward enough about the whole caught making out in the hospital, but as the first doctor was scolding her for her apparent lack of concern for 'Mr. Castle's condition,' she recognized the doctor in the back of the room, trying to hide his face away, as none other than Josh. The fact that it was Josh didn't matter to Beckett, though. There were absolutely no feelings there now, there never really were. She was with Castle now. Or was she? I mean they hadn't discussed it or anything, but expressing your love for one another and making out in a hospital bed sounded pretty together-ish, right? What was awkward was that he must have saw them doing that and now he was trying his best to escape the room.

Finally, after all the doctors left (she wasn't really listening to them talk anyway), Castle and Beckett just stared at each other. At the same moment, they broke out in laughter over the whole situation.

For the next few hours, they just held hands and talked, it was so natural. When they realized how late it had gotten, Castle asked her to stay the night (even though it was against the rules, he knew a few people that could take care of things.) Even though she rolled her eyes at his connections, she admitted that she didn't want to leave just yet.

Castle moved over in is bed so Beckett could lay down beside him. He was surprised when she actually did climb into bed with him, and even more surprised when she snuggled right up to him.

Beckett sighed contently; did she actually just climb into bed with Richard Castle?

"Kate, I've wanted this… us for a very, _very _long time."

"I know," Kate simply said. Then she leaned up to give Castle a quick kiss on the lips. This was an innocent kiss, not like their other ones, but it was still packed with love.

"What I mean is… I want to do this right. If you have any doubts, or if you're uncomfortable, if we move too fast or too slow… you have to let me know."

"Well, Castle, there is one thing. It's actually why I got thrown off your case, I don't imagine Ryan or Esposito already told you?" She paused for any glimmer of recognition in his eyes, and finding nothing, she continued, "I… I think Gates might have been right when she said this job was too dangerous for you. She doesn't believe that anymore apparently, but I do. You're hurt Rick. And you're lucky to be alive. You shouldn't be putting yourself in these situations, you have a daughter and a mother to take care of. I love you Rick, and I want to be with you, but not at work, not with your life on the line."

This one hurt Castle. Over the past four years, he was sure he had more than proven himself to be a responsible, well mostly responsible, part of her team. He removed himself from Beckett's arms to look her square in the eyes.

"Beckett… I don't think I understand… I thought you loved working with me?"

"I do."

"And this," he motioned to the monitors next to the bed, "this is a onetime thing. Won't happen again."

"You can't promise that." And Castle could have sworn she saw tears welling up in her eyes.

"Look, you could never let me work with you again, and one day a cab could run me down, or I could slip on a patch of black ice, or hell, I could eat some bad sushi! There are millions of ways to put everyone in danger, all day every day. Now, I love working with you, and it's no more dangerous than walking down the street sometimes. As soon as I am humanly possible, I am going to walk into the precinct in the morning, and if you'll let me, I am going to hand you your coffee and give you a good morning kiss. Sometimes, it's not about the statistical danger, but beating the odds. Let's do that, Kate, let's beat the odds."

"Castle…" her voice almost a whisper, "I can't lose another person I love."

"You won't lose me. You have me. Always." He leaned in to kiss her on the forehead, and pulled her back down so she was resting on his shoulder.

"Always?"

It was so quiet that Castle wasn't sure she really said it. It occurred to him that anything that was supposed to be forever never was, especially concerning her mother. He simply held Beckett tighter. "Always my love," he whispered back, but she was already asleep.

…

Sun streaming through the window woke Beckett up. At first, she had no clue where she was, and feeling strong arms around her, she began to panic, but, luckily, she remembered last night before she acted rashly.

For what seemed like hours after that initial incident, she watched Castle sleep. It gave her time to think about what happened, but it also gave her time to stare at Castle without fear of being caught.

She just finished sorting out her thoughts when Castle woke up.

"Good morning," Castle beamed, leaning in to kiss her. It was supposed to be a mind-blowing good morning kiss, but Beckett pulled away before it ever really began.

"Castle, we need to talk."

Wow… he knew those words were a death sentence for most any relationship. What he didn't know was how he blew it so fast. Wait… was it a relationship? They hadn't really talked about it, But they did spend the night in each other's arms.

She wriggled out of his arms. This was _not _a good sign.

"I think yesterday… last night… I think it was a mistake. I think we were caught up in our emotions and we shouldn't have. Let's just… let's just go back."

And for the second time in two days, Beckett was sprinting out of the hospital.

…

Rick heard nothing from her for four days. Ryan and Esposito kept him updated on what happened at the precinct, and he always asked about her. Apparently, she had solved "his" case and roughly a dozen other Italian Mobsters were now behind bars. She had said nothing out of the ordinary, but had been putting most of her time into her job, more than usual.

Two days ago, he came home. He was about to trek to over to her apartment, but Alexis was watching his every move like a hawk, making sure he "took it easy."

A day ago, he stopped sleeping so much and sat down to do some writing when he got a most unusual call—from Iron Gates.

Now he was walking into the precinct, with coffee as a peace offering, hoping to God Beckett didn't shoot him.

He walked into Captain Gate's office, surprised to see a disgruntled Beckett in there too. _Intrigue…_

"Castle, thank you for finally joining us, sit down."

**Okay… so a lot happened this chapter. What is Gates going to say? Stay tuned :p**


	4. Chapter 4

**Well, I'm not going to keep you waiting. Thank you for your support! And alas, I do not own Castle or its characters, that was just too much for Santa to handle this year.**

Was he hearing this right: undercover, with Beckett, in a hotel, as newlyweds? "I'm in!" he said, a little too eager.

"No! Sir this will never work. Newlyweds? No."

"You don't have a choice in the matter; you and Castle are to report to The Plaza this afternoon at 3pm for your 'honeymoon.' The hotel manager, Mr. Sweeney, says he suspects an inside job involved in the murder of staff member, Christen Dunmore, who had been working in the main restaurant part-time. Mr. Sweeney says he can't have his guests disturbed by telling them that one of their employees was murdered by another, so undercover it is. Get to know the staff by any means possible. Oh, and because it is so last minute, the only suite Mr. Sweeney could spare… it's one bedroom, so work it out amongst yourselves which one of you will take the couch."

…

"Sweet digs." Kate murmured to herself, she still wasn't thrilled about this one bedroom thing and was barely speaking to Castle. "Oh, and the couch is yours."

"Oh, come on Beckett, can't we take turns or something? Look how huge that bed is, we could both sleep in it and never notice each other!" It came out almost like a whine.

Beckett used everything she had to hide her smile and rolled her eyes instead. She stepped close to Castle, invading his personal space, and looked straight into his eyes, "do you know what I really like to have in my bed with me at night?" she purred. However, she was careful not to touch him because she knew she would—what was her excuse?—oh right, she would get caught up in the moment.

"W-what?" Castle choked out.

"My gun," and with that she was walking away. Was there an extra swing in her hips? Or was Castle imagining things? "Oh, get dressed for dinner, we're checking out the wait-staff tonight," she called over her shoulder on the way into the bedroom. Castle stood frozen for another minute or two before his wits finally returned to him, then he went into the bedroom to grab a suit. Beckett was in there choosing her clothes to.

_Time to strike back._ Castle thought. He nonchalantly threw off his current shirt and tossed it across the room onto the bed. Just then, Beckett turned around, and now it was her turn to be frozen. _Look at those biceps… And his abs… _She could get used to a half-naked Castle. Wait—no. She wasn't supposed to want him._ Look away. Look away. Look away._ She knew if she wasn't half way around the room, she would not have the will to look away, and probably wouldn't stop herself from touching those muscles. She felt her cheeks turning what was probably a deep shade of red. _Look away. Look away. Look away._

Castle cleared his throat. _Damn. Caught looking._

Beckett tore her eyes away and muttered something about being better if she changed somewhere else.

Hahaha! He got her! Turning around, he wondered what he should wear. Woah—that was new for him. Richard Castle was not the type to get nervous before a date. And this wasn't even a date! He ended up choosing his best black Armani suit with a white shirt and a gold tie. Simple, but classy. And since the suit had been custom tailored, it fit him like a glove.

Beckett walked into the bathroom and breathed deeply trying to shove Castle's naked torso out of her mind. She distracted herself by paying more attention than typical as she got ready. She wore a fierce red gown, one she spent way too much on at that vintage clothing store. But when she looked in the mirror, she decided it was well worth it. It was backless and flirty with a large slit up the left leg, so she knew it would drive Castle wild, and that was the point, right? She paired the dress with sparkly gold platform heels that were excessively tall, as per usual, and took a deep breath as she opened the bathroom door. _Showtime. _

Trying her hardest not to look at Castle, she walked over to the bed where she left her gun and badge and where Castle was sitting and waiting for her. Tantalizingly slow, she lifted her leg, accentuating the slit, and fastened the gun to her leg. She knew Castle was watching, but she refused to look.

Finally she spoke, work-related of course.

"You need to come up with a fake name. Somebody might recognize Richard Castle."

"Well what about you? Somebody could recognize your name from all of the press about your… well… about…"

She got the point, she didn't want to say it out loud either. As much as she tried to act like she was fine, she knew it wasn't and she knew Castle knew that. Her shooting still haunted her.

"Fine," she said, "You can be Peter. And I'll be.."

"If you get to pick my name, it's only fair that I should pick yours. You can be Phoebe."

She crinkled her nose, but didn't object.

"And might I say, Phoebe, you look gorgeous. Shall we?"

She rolled her eyes, "let's go Peter." As she walked to the door, she couldn't help but think that he looked pretty damn gorgeous as well.

Once they were in the hall, Castle wrapped his arm around her back, pulling her into him.

"What're you doing, Castle?"

"We're supposed to be newlyweds, remember? Lots of touching if I recall correctly."

When they walked into the hotel lobby, Castle whispered into her ear (it probably looked like a cute couple thing) "could you at least pretend like you like me? We are married, after all."

Then she did a most unexpected thing… she smiled and gave him a little peck on the lips and whispered back with a large smile "there Castle, married enough for you?"

"I think you mean Pete." Castle shot back, trying to sound like he was unaffected by that baby kiss.

They continued their embrace across the lobby and into the main restaurant.

"Reservations… oh we forgot to make reservations…"

"Phoebe, do you really think I could screw up our marriage that fast?" Castle said walking up to the hostess, he said "Johnson, party of two."

"Yes, sir, right this way Mr. Johnson."

Beckett gave him a look of surprise. When did he do that? They were seated at a private looking table with dim lighting and were immediately served champagne.

When Beckett recovered, she got hold of the hostess right before she walked away and asked "isn't there another girl who usually does the hostess job, Christen?"

The girl smiled back politely and answered, "she is no longer with us ma'am. I'm sorry." She walked away quickly after that, but Beckett swore she saw the girl start to cry. Therefore, she had known the victim and was sad saddened by her death. Beckett made a mental note to try and talk to the girl later.

"Johnson?" Beckett asked, turning to Castle when they were finally alone.

"Well to be honest, I knew we needed cover names before you pointed it out. I called down and made reservations while you were getting changed."

"Not bad Pete."

They talked for a while, looking at their menus, when Castle became very insistent that he order for her. After a few more minutes, a waiter came up and asked what they wanted.

"My wife will have the Pappardelle Pomodor," he pronounced every syllable perfectly, Beckett was impressed, "and I will have the Ricotta Gnocchi. Oh, and we'll also have a bottle of Fontodi Chianti Classico, your finest year." Okay, now he was just showing off.

"Right away sir."

"Oh, and is Christen Dunmore working tonight? We're friends of the family and would love to say hello," Beckett asked.

"Um… she's… she didn't have any family?"

"It was a long time ago. I knew her as a little girl, and caught wind that she worked here."

"Well, ma'am, I'm not exactly supposed to say anything, but since you knew her, I suppose I should tell you that she passed away." The waiter leaned in closer, as if to spread some gossip, "murdered."

The couple dined in peace, speculating about the murderer a little, but mostly enjoying each other's company. They walked back to the room, hand in hand, stuffed and slightly tipsy from the fabulous wine, and settled down to watch some TV.

A few hours later, Castle noticed that Beckett had fallen asleep next to him on the couch. This was the perfect opportunity for him to snag the bed. Instead, he picked her up, carried her into the bedroom, took off her shoes, and tucked her in. He stood to watch her sleep for a few moments before he respectfully withdrew to make his bed on the couch.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi everyone! Sorry it took me a tad longer than I had hoped to update this, and I'm really sorry to inform you all that I am going on a last second road trip starting tomorrow (yeah… REALLY last minute), so I might be a little slower for the next few days due to the lack of writing time I'll have. But hopefully, I'll find time because I enjoy this, which I didn't think I would, but I do. So thank you all for your patience and support! I'm excited about this chapter guys, big things are happening in this chapter and there are bigger plans for the future, I promise what you want is coming (just it took them four years to get here, so it certainly isn't going to happen in a day). So… I'm not going to keep you any longer, enjoy!**

**Oh. And Castle and all of its characters do not belong to me, except in that one dream.**

"NOOOO!" Beckett screamed and bolted up in bed.

Castle, ever attuned to the sound of Beckett's voice, heard her shrieks in his sleep, woke up, and literally sprinted to her to see what was wrong.

"Kate, Kate, are you alright?" She was holding her chest, right where she had been shot, and Castle knew she was having a nightmare about it. He walked over to the bed and drew her in for a hug, "hey, Kate, you're okay, it was just a nightmare, shhhhh, you're okay." He kissed her on the top of the head and continued to comfort her, as he used to comfort Alexis after nightmares when she was a kid.

"C-can you stay here?" Beckett finally choked out. She didn't really wait for an answer, she just moved over in the bed and pulled him in next to her.

When she woke up, she found herself wrapped in strong arms, her head nuzzled into Castle's neck, and clinging to his shirt like her life depended on it. She liked where she was, liked being in Castle's arms. She felt… content. She was careful not to move too much, but she did release her death grip on Castle's shirt. She didn't want to wake him because that meant that this would all end. The question was, why was she asleep in Castle's arms? She remembered falling asleep on the couch… she remembered Castle putting her into bed, but he had left then. Why was he back? Oh no… oh no! She had another of her nightmares! Poor, sweet Castle for caring for her like this. She really needed to work on getting those under control because she couldn't keep waking him up in the middle of the night, it wasn't fair to him.

Thirty seconds later, she felt Castle stir. _Hold still. Hold still. _She didn't want him to realize she was awake, because then, this moment would surely have to end. As much mental wishing as she did though, Castle gently got up, and removed himself from Castle's grip. Beckett continued to pretend to be asleep, and she heard Castle leave the room and shut the door behind him.

Castle decided to cheer Beckett up today, he knew he couldn't take away the fear that gave her those nightmares, but maybe he could distract her enough… He just didn't really know what to do to help, but he did know that Beckett didn't deserve to be haunted by her bad memories, seeing as she's already had her fair share of that with her mother's murder.

He decided to start with breakfast.

Ten minutes later, Beckett smelled food and decided to go see what Castle was cooking. She checked herself in the mirror, making sure her hair was messy, but in a good way, and proceeded to the kitchen. She surprised herself when she had to make sure she looked okay to eat breakfast with Castle, so many things about herself around Castle surprised her.

"Mornin'," Kate fake –yawned and outstretched her arms as she sat down at the breakfast bar.

"Good morning sunshine!" Castle beamed at her. Her natural beauty astounded him.

He served up a delicious breakfast for two of eggs and bacon, and of course, coffee. Halfway through their delicious breakfast, there was a knock on the door.

Curious as to who would be at their undercover hotel room at 8am, Beckett opened the door.

"Are you the.. the, uh… well the _cops_?" He said cops with extra emphasis, but in a whisper. He was a clean cut man, well cut and well dressed—business type man.

"Mr. Sweeney?" Beckett guessed.

"Yes, uh… may I?" he motioned to their hotel room.

"Of course, sir, would you like some coffee?"

"No, thank you, I'm already on edge enough as it is lately. You know, Christen was like a daughter to me. She was a special girl, so smart, but not conceited. She was saving money to go back to college. She was a lonely girl, though. No family, the only friends she had were from work, and she had just broken up with her boyfriend, who also works here, Tony Camarillo, one of the waiters in the restaurant. She was a good girl, she didn't deserve to die… I just really want this over with. I can't imagine somebody trying to hurt her."

Castle jumped into dad mode the minute he heard the word daughter. "Mr. Sweeney, I have a daughter myself and if anyone tried to hurt her… well they wouldn't want to see my wrath. I can assure you that we _will _solve this case and put whoever is responsible for this behind bars for a very, very long time."

"Mr. Sweeney, we need to talk to Tony."

"Well, typically newlyweds don't spend mass amounts of time out of their room, and you really shouldn't break your cover. I can put him on Room Service today, that way you can talk to him alone, too. Tony's shift starts at seven tonight. Thank you for everything, Detective, now I'm a busy man and have a hotel to run, so if you'll excuse me, I best be on my way." With a nod of the head, Mr. Sweeney was out the door.

So… we have until 7pm, what should we do Beckett… married people things," Castle suggested the last part with a waggle of the eyebrows and a nod toward the bedroom door.

Beckett gave Castle a playful smack on the arm and rolled her eyes, yet again trying to conceal a smile.

"I have a meeting with Gates to inform her of what we know, and you, Castle, have a meeting with your publisher, remember? We talked about it at dinner."

Truthfully, Castle wasn't really in his right mind last night with the way Beckett looked in that dress, and they had just had an altogether great time, he didn't really want to remember work talk.

"Right, right, well we're sort of… you know, just married, so we have to leave and come back together. Shall we meet for lunch before we do come back?"

"It's a date." Beckett replied without missing a beat, and then she walked back into the bedroom to get ready for the day.

They walked downstairs and through the lobby side by side, hand in hand, comfortably. They didn't talk much on their way out, but secretly, they were both hoping that one day, it wouldn't be "Peter and Phoebe Johnson," but Rick and Kate.

…

Captain Gates was euphoric about the new Tony lead and happy to see that things were moving along quickly. She had some extra time before lunch, so she decided to visit Lanie in the morgue.

Castle's publishers were miserable about Castle's lack of new material, but in his defense, he was doing mostly "research" at the current moment. He had some extra time before lunch, so he decided to stop in a few shops before his "date" with his "wife."

…

"Phoebe."

"Pete."

They smiled and hugged… neither of them completely sure why they were keeping up with their undercover ID a safe five blocks from the hotel.

They held hands and talked comfortably while they ate, except for the fact that they were still using code names. Halfway through lunch, Castle got a little fidgety. Since nothing got by Beckett, she finally asked, "Hey, Pete, what's got your panties in a bunch?"

"Okay, Phoebs," Castle let out along with a deep breath (he had taken to the shorter form of Phoebe to sound like they were closer), "I thought since we were married now, we might as well look like it, so when I was walking by a store on my way here today, this caught my eye… and well… here."

He pulled out a little blue box and handed it to her. Immediately, she recognized it as Tiffany. Her arm reached out (of its own accord, of course) and opened the box. A diamond ring. A Tiffany diamond engagement ring.

"Rick… this is too much," it barely came out, her voice choked by her sheer awe. She also broke cover.

"Well, it's only half of what _Phoebe_ deserves for putting up with me for all these years. I mean honestly, I force myself into your life, throw it for a loop—you've had several good reasons to shoot me, and the means to do it—and yet here we are. Thank you, so much for not giving up on me, it truly does mean the world to be, and it is an honor for me to consider myself a part of your life."

Beckett couldn't even speak… was she in shock? She decided that she must be. She had the feeling that even if the situation, the ring, the fake names, even though all of that was fake, Rick's words sounded sincere. And that did all sorts of things to her stomach, weird, unfamiliar flippy things.

With questioning eyes, Castle picked up the ring and looked into Beckett's eyes, gleaming with… were they tears? He hoped to God they were tears of joy. "May I?" He motioned to her hand.

Still unable to talk, Beckett just stuck out her arm in surrender to Castle.

They both stared into the other's eyes as Richard Castle… umm… Pete… slid a diamond engagement ring onto Katherine Beckett's… or…Phoebe's trembling hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone! I've missed you all over the last few days! Thank you all for following along with this story and triple thanks to any of you who leave me reviews. **_**Hint, hint!**_

**Happy New Year everyone! Best wishes to you all for a safe, happy, and successful 2012! **

**Enjoy this chapter everyone, it's a lot of case stuff, but there's some other stuff too.**

**And as usual, nothing is mine. I'm just barrowing without permission.**

Castle decided that they should have a Spiderman movie marathon to go with their room service. Beckett really couldn't object because he used his best puppy dog face and almost had a conniption when she said she'd never seen them. Plus she felt that she owed him for his sweeping grand gesture at lunch, even though he tried to play it off like it was just "what she deserved."

It was seven thirty: the room service had been ordered, the pajamas had been donned, and the movies were ready. Just as Beckett started to sit on the couch, Castle launched himself at it, landing in an angle that was taking up most of the couch. Since Beckett was halfway down before Castle flung himself across the room, she crashed down on top of him.

"Rick!" Beckett tried to sound annoyed, but truthfully, she was somewhat amused at his antics.

"Well Detective, I could get used to this form of interrogation," Castle added with a wink, looking down at his crotch. Just then, she noticed where her hand had landed in the debacle, but of course, she withdrew her hand immediately, quickly taking note of how well endowed he felt.

"Rick… aren't you going to move? You know, so I can sit on the couch?"

"Nope."

"No?"

"No, I'm comfortable like this. Now shut up, it's starting."

It was useless to fight for Castle's attention when there were comic book heroes waiting, so she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

Not ten minutes later, they heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," they called in unison, thinking it was just Tony with their room service. He was supposed to think they were married, so Phoebe sprawled across Pete's chest was no big deal.

"Is there something the happy couple wants to share?" said an all too familiar voice.

"Hey, bro, you owe me a twenty," came a second familiar voice.

Ryan and Esposito, shit! Beckett leaped off of Castle and Castle sat up straight.

"It's not what it looks like, he wouldn't move… and I fell… I guess you had to be there," Beckett started to defend herself; it was the truth.

"It looked a little cozier than that," said Ryan with a teasing grin.

"And look at that rock Beckett! Look, I don't care what's going on between you, or what you're calling it, but damn! It's about time you two!" exclaimed Esposito.

"Is there a reason you two are here?" Beckett sounded genuinely annoyed at the interruption, and she was. She didn't quite understand it, but watching a children's movie with Castle as a pillow really wasn't that bad. In fact, she was enjoying it—something she never expected.

"Right… umm… well you weren't answering your phones… I guess we know why now," Ryan chuckled, "but there's important information you need _before _you talk to that Tony suspect."

"Well…?" Castle was annoyed as well.

"Lanie found blood on the vic that wasn't hers in the stab wound that is cause of death. It's female."

"Oh," Castle and Beckett both let out in unison. That changed things, like the entire direction of the investigation. After polite, but hollow thank-you's to the two intruding detectives, Ryan and Esposito left Beckett and Castle to sort things out in the few minutes they had before Tony showed up with their room service.

Castle was more than happy to resume the horizontal cuddling thing, but Beckett said Ryan and Esposito "killed the mood." Instead, Castle sat at the end of the couch and Beckett sprawled across the rest of it with her head resting on his chest. She wasn't sure what was with the sudden desire to use Castle as a human pillow, but he sure was good at it.

When the second knock at the door came, they were, yet again, too comfortable to get up and answer it, so Caste just shouted, "It's open."

Tony entered the room with their unorthodox food selections—well unusual for two adults on their honeymoon at a glitzy hotel. Pizza, chicken fingers, candy, popcorn, and soda were typically the order of thirteen year olds having a slumber party. Of course, Castle had been the one to order the food in the first place, but Beckett had to admit, junk food and movie watching was not such a bad idea.

"Thank you Tony," Beckett started, "oh, and about Christen, I'm really sorry for your loss. I didn't say that last night in the restaurant, but I could tell she was special to you, so I'm sorry."

"Um… thanks Mrs. Johnson."

"You said she was murdered?"

"Did I? I suppose I might have said that. I really just want the bitch who did this to rot away in prison for all the years he took from her. You know, I loved her. I wanted to fix things between us."

"Do you have any theories about who did it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, you were just talking about the murderer like you had an idea who did it. I was just intrigued, that's all. I enjoy solving murder mysteries… in books," she quickly corrected herself, she couldn't really give away her occupation and blow her cover.

"Well… her roommate, Adi, she teaches a jazzercise class here, but she's also covering Christen's hostess job in the evenings to cover the extra half of the rent. Anyway, they had a pretty big fight the day before she died, threatened to 'get rid of her.' At the time, I thought Adi was going to throw Christen out, but now… now I'm not so sure that's what she meant.

"A fight… oooo, what'd they fight about?" This time Castle joined in, his mystery-writer-senses tingling and having him truly intrigued."

Tony seemed snap out of the mood to talk about the murder of the girl he loved, "Umm… look you're guests, so my boss would have a field day if he knew I was telling you any of this, you should go back to your movie night and forget about this morbid stuff, I wish I could do the same." And with that, Tony hurried out the door before Castle and Beckett could squeeze out any more details about Adi and her mysterious fight with Christen.

"Thanks Castle! He was talking until you chimed in!"

"It was your next question too, admit it. He would have left anyway, because that's exactly what you would have asked him," Castle, only sounding slightly smug about his fierce interrogating skills (it would have been more than slightly if only they had worked).

"Actually, I ask the full name of the suspect before I ask any potential questions to make him go running."

"Oh."

"Now I guess we have to go to the jazzercise class tomorrow morning to find out ourselves." Beckett sounded a lot like a parent trying to convince their child that a twelve-hour car ride would be lots of fun.

"No way."

"Break out the leotard and leggings Castle!"

"But my manliness!"

"It's your fault for scaring away Tony before we got any more information," even at the accusation, Beckett had a certain amount of playfulness in her tone. Castle just glared back at her though, because she was right.

"I'm not wearing a leotard."

"That's a shame, I would have loved to see your body in such a form fitting fabric," Beckett raised her eyebrows and licked her lips.

For a split second, he actually reconsidered the leotard before Beckett started laughing.

"You tease!"

"I couldn't help it Castle, you're just _soooooo easy_." She said the last part seductively, still teasing Castle.

Castle closed his eyes and put his head on the back of the couch, trying desperately to regain composure while Beckett dug into the food.

Eventually, Castle joined in with the food and they resumed the Spiderman movie marathon.

At the end of the final movie, Beckett looked at the clock. "Two in the morning! You kept me up til two in the morning watching comic book hero movies!"

"But you loved it."

"Yeah, I did." She was unsure why she admitted it so quickly, she intended to make him feel bad about keeping her up so late. The truth was, she really didn't think the movies were as bad as she expected

"Bedtime Ms. Beckett. We do have to wake up early for some jazzercise!" It seemed the word "jazzercise" could not be said without a massive amount of fake enthusiasm. "The bedroom is all yours, I'll take the couch."

"Umm… okay."

Beckett walked into the bedroom, got ready for bed, and put her ring… no Phoebe's ring back in the box. She turned out all of the lights and got into bed. Five minutes later, she turned on all of the lights, got out of bed, and walked back out to Castle, who was making a bed on the couch.

"Castle?"

"Beckett?"

"Well, it's really not fair to you to stay on the couch, and that bed is enormous, so if you'd like, you can come and sleep with me."

Castle just raised his eyebrows and smiled at her, realizing what she said before she did.

After realizing it herself, she smacked Castle on the chest, but laughed, "Not like that! But if you wanted to be asleep in an actual bed, the bed that I will also be asleep in is large enough for the both of us, if you want, that is."

"And this isn't some plot to take advantage of my body and then shoot me?"

"Well I guess you'll just have to find out for yourself, won't you Rick?" Beckett winked and went back to her room, leaving Castle to make his choice.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi everyone! So… this winter hiatus… it's really long, but only seven more days, right? *deep breath* I cannot wait for this episode. Thank you for reading & reviewing, I do enjoy hearing what you all think, so continue to let me know. On with chapter 7…**

**Oh. And I own nothing.**

Castle only needed thirty seconds to decide between the couch and the nice, big, warm, fluffy, bed. Definitely the bed. He didn't even bother to clean up the blankets and pillows on the couch before he entered the bedroom, with the bed Beckett would be sharing with him. Wow. He couldn't even begin to wrap his head around that. He was cautious and left ample space between the detective and himself when he slipped into bed—she did still sleep with a gun, after all.

…

When Beckett woke up the next morning, she slowly became aware of a radiating heat behind her that wrapped around her side and ended on her stomach. She eventually recognized it as Castle's hand and was unsure whether she should move it or not, but she liked the warmth, so she just went back to sleep.

When Castle woke up, he instinctively felt happy. He found that he was holding something… or someone. He realized that he had his arm around Beckett and his hand rested on her stomach. On its own accord, his hand started to draw small circles on her stomach. His brain eventually realized what his hand was doing, and began to wrestle with the desire to continue because it felt right, and the desire to save the hand that Beckett would surely cut off if she woke up. He settled for halfway, left his hand, stopped the circling, and went back to sleep.

At 9:45, Beckett rolled over to realize again that she was in the arms of Richard Castle, gazing into his sleeping face, the only time he ever looked completely innocent, she came to another realization: no nightmares. Did it really take getting into bed with Castle to stop having nightmares about her shooting? That really didn't seem like herself to need a man for anything… well just for that one activity. Coincidentally, that usually took place in a bed, too. The third and final realization of the morning was the time. They had to be at jazzercise in fifteen minutes!

"Castle!" She gave him a playful shove in the chest, "Stop feeling me up and get ready!" Within seconds, the stomach thing was forgotten and they were both well on their way to questioning the suspect.

At 10:02, Beckett and a very groggy Castle stormed into the hotel gym where jazzercise was starting. Beckett wore yoga pants and form-fitting yellow top, while castle wore a maroon t-shirt and sweats he had just bought at the gift shop and still had the tags on them (apparently he hadn't packed any sweats; he really was one to dress well almost all of the time).

"Okay! Hello everybody! My name is Adi, and I'll be your instructor this morning! It's nice to see you all here, are you all ready for some fun jazzercise?" Castle decided Adi was excessively chipper right now. I mean, nobody should be _that_ cheerful about exercise this early.

Adi started the music, and Firework by Katy Perry came on. Secretly, Castle and Beckett were relieved that it wasn't some song from the 80s that would bring back memories of bad dances and even worse clothes.

Only a minute into the song, Beckett glanced over at Castle to find that he was having a hard time moving… and breathing.

"Pete are you okay?" Beckett whispered loudly, she started to shuffle closer to him, keeping up with the jazzercise, too.

He didn't respond.

"Castle?" Beckett whispered, quietly this time. She was genuinely concerned for him, and a even a little freaked out. He could keep up chasing the bad guys all over New York City, and now he couldn't even do a little a little exercise indoors?

"Oh. Hi." He could barely get the words out. "Did I mention that I never really got the clearance from the doctor for exercise after the whole lung thing?" That's all he could say before he passed out.

"Pete…? Peter wake up!" Beckett was furious with herself for letting Gates shove Castle into another case, furious that she could not keep him from harm. The rest of the people in the room had noticed by now, and were forming a circle around the couple, but Beckett could only pay attention to the passed out Castle in her arms on the floor.

When Castle finally came to, he heard somebody calling out for a man named Pete. Then he became aware of hands behind his head and comprehended that the speaker was talking to him. As his consciousness continued to return to him, he recognized the voice as Beckett's. Oh, right! The undercover mission! But… then why is he unconscious on the floor?

"Bec—" Beckett heard Castle start to utter her name… if he did, he would blow their cover. Instead, she gushed, rather loudly, "Ohhh honey you're awake!" to drown out his voice and smashed her own lips onto his to prevent him from talking. It was much like their first undercover kiss, only Beckett-initiated this time. Just like the first time, all spectators bought it.

Wow. If unconsciousness was the price to pay to kiss Beckett, Castle might just come back for more jazzercise tomorrow. But he had to get these thoughts out of his head, they were just role playing for the sake of an undercover murder investigation, and Beckett made herself perfectly clear that there couldn't be a _them_.

Beckett, after making sure her "husband" was okay, began to reassure Adi and the fellow jazzercisers that they did not need to call an ambulance. What she didn't say was that it was because the EMTs would need to know a real identity. No, she would drive Castle to the hospital herself, where no suspects could start suspecting anything.

On the way there, Castle kept protesting that he did not need a doctor; he just needed rest.

Beckett needed to hear for herself the true extent of his injuries for herself, though.

At the hospital, Beckett listened intently to the doctor say that by this point, any pressure on his chest, any exercise, among some other activities probably brought him pain, which is maximized by the broken ribs he has healing surrounding the healing un-collapsed lung, but slowly all of the pain would go away completely. Beckett just looked at Castle. He had let her use him as a human pillow, she physically laid on top of him his all her weight pushing down on him. Why would he let her do that if it hurt him so much?

The minute the doctor left the room to run some tests, Beckett turned to glare at Castle. He just put on his best innocent face and smiled back. Beckett countered with an eyeroll. Castle's smile grew wider and he winked. She felt the corners of her mouth start to pull up, but stopped it immediately, she was mad at him.

Maybe this is what Lanie meant when she said that they had a lot of "eye sex."

"Castle! Why on earth didn't you say that half the things you do cause you pain!"

"Well… it's not that bad."

Beckett just raised her eyebrows. That was all the questioning she had to do.

"Okay, look, I'd rather hurt a little and have you with me than not hurt at all. Last time we were here, you said you loved me and I said I loved you. Now, even if you don't want to admit it again, or if you just aren't ready to talk about it, the fact of the matter is that when you love somebody, you tend to enjoy their company. For example, when you asked me to accompany you to bed last night. We didn't _do_ anything, but that was okay, because love isn't about the sex it's just about being close with another person. So what if it hurt my chest a little, I was just so happy to be near you without you pushing away, that I wasn't going to be the one to start pushing. Really, a little chest pain is nothing… although… I might be done with jazzercise for now."

"But, I hurt you. And you're not supposed to hurt the person you love, so I'm not good at loving people. I haven't really figured out how to love…" she trailed off because until now, she hadn't really figured that one out. She thought she had loved before. But now she realized she was never really in it for the long haul, it wasn't really love, not the love she had for Castle. It was a committed relationship, sure, but love—well she was finally discovering the true sense of the word.

"And that's okay, we can figure this out together, because I thought I knew love, enough to marry two other women, but they didn't work. Our relationships were held together by a glue stick and when they were poked a little, they just fell apart. Us, we could be like Rhino Glue! Now, you might be thinking, 'huh? I thought Gorilla Glue was the good sticky stuff.' But, Rhino Glue, not too many people have heard of it, but it is the world's strongest glue. We could make it, you and me, stuck together with Rhino Glue." The writer in him decided to take a pause, or maybe it was the Martha in him that decided to pause for dramatic effect, then the ADD side of him took over and he exclaimed excitedly, "Oh! And, if we were together, like more than we are now, you could watch over me! Like my special sexy cop bodyguard! That's why you're worried, right? Because I'll get hurt? Not that I really _need_ the protecting, I am a man and all. A big super cool man with lots of hidden ninja skills. I could handle some bad guys, but really Kate, I'm probably safer with you."

"Rick…" She was honestly speechless. Maybe it was worth a shot…

"You used my first name! Do you have any idea what that does to me?"

"I imagine along the same line of what happens to me when you call me 'Kate'." She surprised even herself when she admitted this aloud.

"Oh really, _Kate_? You get a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach, _Kate_? It's a good feeling, though, right _Kate_? Like a hundred little butterflies have decided to move in down there, _Kate_?_ Kate_? I like calling you _Kate_. It makes me feel good, too, _Kate_." He overemphasized every single unnecessary 'Kate,' but Beckett was more shocked to see that the feeling he described was _exactly _the way she felt. Maybe they really could make it though. She was insanely worried about the relationship not working out, because then she wouldn't even have him as a partner in crime solving. One thing was for sure, they have_ many _decisions to make.

"Okay, Rick, let's give this a shot." She cursed herself for not being able to say anything eloquent to the writer-boy, but at least it got her point across.

"Really?" His smile was larger than a child who just got a shiny new toy.

Just then, because the doctors at this particular hospital had excellent timing, the doctor walked into the room to give Mr. Castle the all clear for going home. The doctor made Beckett promise to take good care of him. He would be fine, just no more jazzercise for the time being.

Jazzercise! In the mess, she had forgotten all about why they are there in the first place! They still had to talk to Adi.

Beckett and Castle walked back to the Plaza, hand in hand. It wasn't an undercover show anymore, it was simply _them_. Finally, they were together. Castle brought their hands up to his mouth and kissed the back of his hand and Beckett smiled. They didn't talk on the way home, but it was a comfortable silence, one of two people that didn't need words to communicate.

Castle always thought they would get together at some point. At first, it was about shagging the hot detective, as much as he hated to admit it now. Then, their relationship grew and he wanted the whole package, Beckett and Castle, together for a _very _long time. And he smiled.

Beckett always thought letting Castle into her life on a personal level was about as likely as an alien invasion, although she knew Castle believed both would happen. She recalled long sessions complaining to Lanie about him in the morgue. Then, their relationship grew, and even though she was terrible with emotions, she didn't want to lose before she loved. And for a moment, just a split second as he kissed her hand and her stomach leaped, she had the slightest inkling that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. And she smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

**WARNING: major developments in this chapter. I'm not sure if I'm 100% happy with it, but I'm excited to hear what you all have to say. As always, thank you for reading, and triple thanks for your comments.**

**Disclaimer: I have zero ownership of Castle or its characters.**

* * *

><p>When the couple walked back into The Plaza, they had one thing on their agenda: to sort things out between them now that it was clear who each person wanted, they had to figure out what they wanted from it. Unfortunately, that's not how it played out.<p>

First, they were swarmed with a handful of people they didn't know, but claimed to have been there for the whole jazzercise debacle and wanted to make sure Mr. Johnson was okay now. And while their intentions were good, Castle and Beckett had other things on their mind and shoved them off fairly quickly with a few 'thanks for your concerns' and 'sorry, but my husband really needs his rest right now.'

As they headed towards the elevator, though, they heard another voice calling for them, one of somebody they actually needed to speak with sooner rather than later.

"Mr. and Mrs. Johnson?"

"Hello Adi, sorry about disrupting your class today, this loaf never told me he wasn't cleared for physical activity yet." Beckett stated, seemingly very friendly.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I just wanted to see if you were feeling any better Mr. Johnson."

"Fine, I'll be back to normal in no time."

"Good, I wouldn't want anything too serious to happen; I bet your wife would be devastated."

"Completely. I've had a tough loss or two before, I don't think I could survive losing Pete here." She reached around Castle's waist and pulled him into a sort of half-embrace. Castle knew she wasn't just making things up anymore, she was talking about her mother and Montgomery. Both had hit her pretty hard, and Castle knew it was this pain that she put into her work that made her an excellent cop. He returned her embrace by putting his arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture.

"Would you know anything about loss, Adi?" Woah! Super-cop strikes again! Castle couldn't help but admire Beckett's ability to flip an innocent conversation into an interrogation about the death of Christen Dunmore.

"Umm… well… my roommate just passed away. It was really unexpected. I don't know why anyone would hurt her, I mean she was such a sweet girl. And I know we had our differences and all, but like, what roommates don't? The cops said she was murdered, I guess I have to believe that because I would have known if she was sick or something, right? But they don't really seem to be looking into it that much because I haven't been questioned. Have you ever been questioned? Like by the police?"

"Oh, I've been to one or two police interrogations," Castle smiled a knowing smile at Beckett while he wondered just how many cups of coffee Adi had today. Or maybe she just needed someone to get everything off her chest. What kind of name was Adi anyway? Castle continued his stream of thoughts while Beckett actually paid attention to the suspect.

"Was your roommate Christen? Uh… I knew her family when she was a little girl… One of the boys, Tony, I think, said his ex-girlfriend Christen was murdered. I just think it would be too weird if two different hotel employees were… killed… in the same week." Beckett knew full well that Adi's roommate was Christen, and that there was only one murder at The Plaza this week, but she needed to get Adi's perspective on Tony, and sometimes it's just best to play dumb and learn what others think.

"Tony… yeah… he would go blabbing to every old Joe on the street, wouldn't he? Christen told Tony that things were over between them. He wasn't too happy about it. She came home one night after a fight with him and had a bruise on her arm, I suspect he did it, though she always said she just tripped on the sidewalk." It was at this point that Beckett noticed a gash on Adi's right arm… large enough to have been the source of the female blood in the murder wound. They would need to get Adi's DNA to make sure, but it looked suspicious to the well-trained cop's eyes.

"That's a real shame, you don't think he had anything to do with it, do you?"

"Between you and me, Mrs. Johnson, I wouldn't say he couldn't have done it. But I'm not one to just accuse people. Look… Tony's not the nicest guy on the street, but it doesn't mean he's a killer."

"Oh my goodness! Adi! What did you do to your arm?"

"I tripped."

"Did you get it looked at? It looks pretty painful." Beckett already heard what she needed for now. The "tripping" was obviously a lie, it was DNA getting time. The only thing that didn't sit well with her was why she wasn't willing to blame the perfectly plausible Tony for the murder, it would protect her to blame him, but it was almost like she was… afraid to.

"It's fine… look I really should be going, and I'm sure you don't want to spend your whole honeymoon standing here talking to me, so go and have some fun you two."

"Well, it's been nice talking to you." Rick reached out to pat the girl on the arm, taking a hair off her top as he did. DNA. Beckett was glad he was thinking the same as her. And if he still was thinking the same as her, it was time to get up to their room.

The doors to the elevator barely closed before Beckett's lips were on Castle's. It only took a split second for Castle to respond, and in no time, they deepened the kiss. Castle pushed Beckett back to the wall of the elevator and pinned her arms above her head with his hands. She responded by pressing her body into him. She could feel how aroused he was through their clothing. They kissed all the way up the twelve floors to their room (thankfully nobody else entered the elevator.) She turned around and pulled him towards their room, never breaking the kiss. They only parted for a brief second to breathe and unlock their door.

Just as fast as they could enter the room, their hands were on each other again. She reached for his hair, oh how she had been longing to run her fingers through that hair. Castle cupped her face, pulling her closer and closer, though that might have looked impossible. He grabbed her hips and pulled her into his groin to feel just how hot he was for her. She moved her hips in the slightest of circular motions and it drove him wild. At this point, they both decided there were simply too much clothes on bodies and not enough clothes decorating the floor. He grabbed the bottom of her shirt, and in one swift move, had it up and over her head, and in the next move, he had his own shirt off, too. He took a moment to take her in. She was beautiful, the curves of her breasts were perfect and her toned body was better than anything Castle could ever imagine.

He could see the scars from her shooting, and it just made him appreciate more the fact that they were here, together, now. Slowly, too slow, he kissed down collarbone, kissed her chest, stopped and hovered for a second over her scar, and then kissed that too, when he came to her breasts, he unclasped her bra, smoothly, and kissed all around each breast, lastly paying attention to each nipple, sucking and flicking until each one formed a pointed peak.

He kissed her stomach, trailing down the line until he got to the top of her pants. He glanced up at Beckett, not entirely asking permission, but just making sure she was okay with the next step. He hooked his fingers into the waistband of the yoga pants she still had on from this morning, and ran his fingers along the inside. He placed on last kiss on the lowest exposed part of her abdomen and she moaned, calling out his name. "Rick…"

And then there was a knock at the door. And Beckett's phone rang simultaneously. They could ignore it, though, right? Castle stood up to place a kiss on Beckett's lips. The knocking grew louder…

"Sorry to disturb you, it's Mr. Sweeney… umm… may I come in?" he called through the door.

"Ugh! Get your shirt on, Castle! We can't just… we're supposed to be working." Beckett looked at her phone then, seeing that is was the captain, she mumbled "oh, shit, it's Gates… get the door will you?" she scrambled to put her bra and shirt back on & tried to tame her hair as she answered the phone.

"Beckett."

"Detective Beckett, I'm just calling to see how you're making out with the case."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Sweeney is here now, we need to speak to him about Christen's roommate, Adi. Apparently they were fighting shortly before Christen's murder. Also, she has a gash on her arm that could explain the female blood in the wound. We got a piece of hair to give to Dr. Parish to run a DNA test to see if they match."

"Good to hear, I expect an update when you get the DNA results back." And with that, the line disconnected, not even so much as a "good luck" or "have a nice day" or even a simple, traditional "good-bye."

By this point, Castle let Mr. Sweeney in. They were still on the small-talk, so Beckett hadn't missed anything important. Then Castle said, "hey, what's Adi's real name? I mean I just can't figure it out. I've heard a lot of names, and part of my job is making them up for my books, but Adi? What's that short for?"

"Her name is Adicia Cromwell."

"Adicia? I thought Adi was weird. Wow. Odd thing to name your kid because…" Beckett sensed a rant that wasn't really prevalent to the conversation, so she decided to cut him off.

"Mr. Sweeny, would Adi ever hurt Christen?"

"You think… Adi… you think she did this? She always sort of looked out for Christen, shared her apartment, even though Christen could barely afford thirty percent of the rent. She protected her from that Tony boy too. She's a few years older than Christen, I always saw her as a big sister figure."

"Really? Okay, we will take that into account." Beckett couldn't give Mr. Sweeney her hold hand, so she decided to leave it at that. "Is there a specific reason you're here?"

"I just wanted to see how the investigation was going. I miss her, and I keep thinking that finding the killer will bring me some kind of closure. I can't be sure if that's true… but I hope it will. Thank you both for your efforts."

"Well… thank you for stopping by." _Even though you ruined the best make out session I've ever had,_ "I swear to you, we will catch the bad guy." _Because now I'm not occupied by something else because of you. _Beckett was annoyed at the interruption, but on some level, she was glad that she had time to get her head on and think before she jumped in to things. Now, she was realizing she just needed some girl talk to sort things out in her head.

Mr. Sweeney, unaware that he was practically being pushed out of the door, leisurely walked to the door, stopped to thank them again, and finally left. Castle turned back to Beckett.

"Why don't you go drop off the hair to Lanie, I'm sure you girls have a lot to talk about, you haven't had much time together since this whole undercover thing." He could tell she needed time to sort things out.

Wow. Castle pretty much took the words out of her mouth, and she had been prepared to let him down easy and tell him that she still wanted in… but she had plan the jump before she dove head first into the deep end.

"Umm… okay, great. You should spend some time with Alexis, too. You are her father, after all, and you've barely talked to her this week, too. We'll meet back here later?"

"It's a date." Castle said the phrase out of habit… but now… he guessed it could be a date. Beckett realized the implication of his words as well. "Okay," she simply said and she reached up and kissed Castle on the cheek. They held hands and stayed together until the last possible second before they had to go in opposite directions, and he bid her farewell with a sweet kiss good-bye.


	9. Chapter 9

**Five days and counting until the next new Castle episode! Can you tell that I'm excited for it? I mean, I haven't seen a new Castle episode since last year (haha well I guess that's not really saying much since it's January 4****th****). **

**Chapter 8 practically exploded with reviews! Thank you all for your thoughts, it makes my day. I honestly love hearing what you all think.****I admit that I'm not as in love with this chapter as I was the last, but that one was so much better than I ever hoped. So... Penny for your thoughts?**

**Disclaimer: I am but a humble writer who owns no part of Castle, but that doesn't stop me from loving it.**

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><p>"Hey girl—what are you doing here? I thought you were spending your time in a snazzy hotel room with Writer-Boy." Lanie was happy to see Beckett, but if Beckett was here, that meant she wasn't with Castle.<p>

"Well, actually, I'm investigating a murder at a snazzy hotel with Writer-Boy. Here, DNA. Can you see if it matches the DNA in the blood you found in the murder wound?"

"Sure thing, girl. How is it living with Castle?" She couldn't help but ask, they were destined to be together and their undercover operation was just the thing to solidify their relationship.

Beckett sighed… this was why she was really here, right—to talk about things?

"Well… actually… I told him I love him. We're sort of… together now. Like together, together. He's an amazing kisser..." Beckett trailed off to think about Castle's kissing abilities, and other things he might be good at doing with his mouth.

"Hahaha, don't tease me, Kate." Lanie so wanted that to happen, but she knew Beckett better than that, she was too cautious to push a guy away for four years and then suddenly be dropping the L-word.

"I'm not. Castle and I are really a thing now. I think. We haven't really talked about it, but when we he was in the hospital, I couldn't stand the thought of losing him. That's why I pushed him away the first time he was there, but, the second time, I realized that if I pushed him away, I would never have him, and I couldn't live like that. I really do love him, I just hate that it took until he was lying in a hospital bed for me to be able to admit it. And if Gates never called and Mr. Sweeney never interrupted, well I would be in a 'snazzy hotel room with Writer-Boy,' as you put it, and we would be having a really good time right now." She had to stop herself before she thought about just how much fun she was missing.

Lanie, having come to the conclusion that this was not a prank, grabbed Beckett in a tight hug and squealed.

"Well it's about time, girl!"

"I know… but you don't think we're moving too fast? I mean we haven't even dated yet."

"He already knows you better than anyone and you know him inside and out. Isn't that what the beginning of a relationship dating is all about? You've done that already over the past four years. Kate, honey, this didn't just happen when you moved into that hotel room with him, or when he got hurt, it's been a long time coming. It's taken four years to get here, that's the opposite of rushing. I mean _everyone _can see it, all I have to say is FINALLY!"

"You really think so?" Lanie pretty much always knew what to say to calm Beckett down, she was right, getting here with Castle was a long process, sure they weren't an official couple until today, but she saw now that they had been more than friends for a long time.

"Definitely, girl, you two are perfect for each other."

"I don't know about that Lanie, I mean, we haven't even tried the whole couple thing yet."

"Trust me, you are."

"Not a word to the boys. I don't need them making bets on our relationship. Just keep it quiet for now… at least until Castle and I figure things out."

The girls spent the rest of their time together in the morgue talking about Castle, Lanie reassured Beckett several times that Castle was more than infatuated with her, and in no way would she ever end up as just another notch on his bedpost. Beckett already knew that on some level, but it was still soothing to hear it from someone else. She had no doubt whatsoever, though, about the fact that Richard Castle was indeed a good man.

Just as Beckett was about to leave and get ready for dinner with Castle, their first meal together since they decided to be a couple, Beckett remembered the pretence for her being there in the first place. "Oh, so, the hair, it belongs to Adicia Cromwell, Christen's roommate. If her DNA is a match to the blood in the murder wound, that will link her to the murder. We already have motive."

"Okay, I'll run the test, but the system is backed up, we're looking at a two day wait at the least."

"Two days?" Beckett sighed, two days could be the difference between a hot trail and a cold case. "Thanks, Lanie."

"Oh, and Kate?" Beckett turned back to look at Lanie on her way out of the door, "I want details." Beckett smiled, but didn't say anything. If things went well tonight, Beckett definitely wouldn't be going into _all _the details.

On her way out, she called Ryan and asked him to run background checks on Tony Camarillo and Adicia Cromwell. They'd be sent to her phone by morning. Then Ryan asked about Castle and Beckett skillfully avoided every innuendo and accusation, smiling the whole time.

…

Alexis was thrilled to have some dad time.

They played a rousing game of laser tag, followed by just talking.

Castle really treasured these last few months with his daughter before she left for college. They talked about school and colleges and the latest drama between her friends. Then, Castle decided that Alexis deserved to know the latest developments in his love life, because if things went the way Castle was hoping, Kate would be spending more time around their loft.

"Alexis, honey, I have some news to tell you."

"You and Detective Beckett finally got together! Oh, Dad, I'm so happy for you!"

"That was creepy how you just did that. How'd you know?"

"Anyone can see it Dad. It's about time."

"So… are you okay with it? Because you're my girl, you always have been and always will be first priority in my life."

"Well it's not like you're flying to Vegas tomorrow, right? I think the two of you make a great couple, just give me time to get used to it, you know? I generally don't have to share you, Dad, so just let me adjust and it'll be great. I like Detective Beckett, and she's really proven herself good for you. She won't be the evil stepmother—" She was cut off there by some choking at the mention of the word "stepmother."

"Pumpkin… I'm in love with her, and maybe someday marriage will be on the table, but I've been married twice, and look how that's worked out. I need to be more than a thousand percent sure before I even think about putting us through another wedding. Third time's the charm, right?"

"What's not to be sure?"

"Well… uhh… well… we haven't even dated yet!" To be honest, Castle hadn't thought of getting married ever again. He never wanted to go through all the trouble the last two caused him. But, now that Alexis was mentioning it, he was having glorious glimpses of a domestic life, sharing a bed and the loft with Kate Castle and having a baby and Alexis could babysit the little tike and they would all grow old and happy together, maybe settling down in a townhouse somewhere nearby, so Kate could still continue her detective work. Then, he remembered that he was getting ahead of himself and banished all thoughts of marriage for a little while.

"Dad… you've sort of been dating for four years." Oh… maybe that was true.

"What a smart daughter you are." He tapped her nose and smiled. Alexis never ceased to impress him.

"Speaking of smart, do you want to know something else I can do?"

"What's that pumpkin?"

"I can tell the time."

"Oh! I have to go. This was nice, Alexis. Thank you for your insight and impeccable time-telling skills. Love you, pumpkin."

"Okay, Dad, love you, too. I'll call you tomorrow."

…

Castle took Beckett to the hottest new restaurant in town. They ate and talked, and enjoyed themselves. Beckett was a lot more relaxed after her talk with Lanie and was able to enjoy the evening without freaking out. When dessert came, they both decided it was time to talk.

"Castle?"

"Rick, call me Rick now, I mean it's less professional and we have more than a professional relationship… so, Rick is good. If you want that is."

"Okay… Rick. And you should call me Kate… that is if you want to."

"Kate, I want to be perfectly clear on my intentions. I know that in the past, I have earned a bad image for my relationships with women. I am the first to admit that it was wrong, you played a big part in teaching me that. You changed me, made me a better man. I love you, and I intend to be in a committed relationship with you for a long time. Kate, I am all in this."

"Rick… I love you, too. I'm crappy with emotions, so I hope I get this all out right. I want to be with you, Rick. I need to be with you, I'm just better when you're there. You even stopped my nightmares the past few nights. I feel comfortable with you, happy, and I haven't felt that in such a long time. I really, really want to give this a go."

"Then it's decided? We're a couple! Who knew that after all these years, this is where we'd end up?" Castle paid the bill and helped Beckett put her coat on.

"Everyone," she laughed quietly.

He kissed her then, he was just too delighted not too. It was a sweet, lingering kiss. He wrapped his arm around her waist and they left the restaurant.

"Well, Ms. Beckett, I've had a lovely time with you tonight. If you'd like, I have a hotel room not too far from here. We could… have a drink… or something…"

She rolled her eyes at his cheesy invitation, but smiled, leaned up to his ear and practically purred, "something sounds perfect."


	10. Chapter 10

**Well ten is a good number, right? I cannot believe I am already up to ten chapters! I guess as the old cliché goes, time flies when you are having fun. This is an M rated chapter for some serious smut. If you do not like that sort of stuff, just skip the whole chapter. If you do like that sort of stuff, read onward.**

**Thank you all for reading. I love to hear what you think, so leave a review if you have time, or leave a very short one if you do not. Enjoy this chapter (I hope!) Sorry it took me so long to get it up, life gets busy, you know? Plus I'm not too sure if I'm happy with the way it turned out, but I can't keep re-writing it forever.**

**Disclaimer: Ownage + Me + Castle = Zero**

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><p>Walking home from the restaurant, it actually started to snow. Castle could not help but admire the perfect setting for walking home the girl you love after your first date. The writer in him was almost giddy. On the way back to The Plaza, they truly looked like a couple in love. Their arms wrapped around each other, she leaning into him ever so slightly, both of them smiling. Additionally, every now and then, he would steal a kiss. It was picture perfect, like it belonged in a movie… or a novel (to support Castle's taste).<p>

While they enjoyed their walk home, they couldn't get back to their room fast enough. When they finally made it into The Plaza, through the lobby, up to the twelfth floor, and into their suite, Castle took both of Beckett's hands in his, looked deep into her eyes, and said, "Kate, I love you, but if that freaks you out, or if we are going too fast, I just need you to tell me."

"I love you, too, Rick. I want this. I want us. Now." She looked even deeper into his eyes, if that was possible, and for a minute, or it could have been hours, they got lost in each other's eyes.

Simultaneously, they leaned into each other. Their lips met in the most affectionate kiss either had ever felt. It was soft and gentle, but so, so packed with emotion. It was a simple kiss, short, but it still took their breath away. Castle hoped to the high heavens that this feeling, so new, yet so indispensible, would never go away or get old. Beckett decided that for once, she would let herself be happy, let herself live in the present and appreciate this intense new passion.

Their next kiss was more fervent. Hungry. They wanted each other. They needed each other. Castle put one hand on the small of Beckett's back and entwined the other in her hair. He used both hands to pull her closer to him, the only thing separating them from the skin to skin contact each one desired so much was their clothes, of which there were far too much.

Beckett moved her fingers Castle's shirt. Tantalizingly slowly, she unbuttoned his shirt, leaving a kiss on each newly exposed part of skin. When she got to the last button, she heard a deep guttural moan slip out of Castle's mouth and she smiled at what she did to him. She places a kiss on his groin through his pants and the moan grew louder. She felt his hardness through his clothing and she liked what she felt. Castle, fearing that if this continued like it was he wouldn't last long enough, pulled Beckett back up to his face, ravishing her with kisses everywhere. He unzipped her dress and felt the bare skin on her back. In one swift motion, he had the thing off her. Now she was just in a pair of lacy black underwear and a matching bra.

"You're beautiful." The words came out as an almost whisper, she had taken his breath away. He always knew she'd be beautiful, but had never pinpointed how he would feel in the presence of her beauty. He was awed just by the mere fact that she chose him, right now she was his and he was going to treasure every moment.

When he finally pulled his attention back to her face, he saw how red her cheeks had gotten by his comment and intense gaze. He pulled her into a tight embrace, and in her ear, he said in a low but intense voice, "I mean it, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." Beckett, who wasn't the type of person to just take compliments easily didn't dare fight him on this because she knew, by the passion in his voice, that he meant it.

She grabbed his face and smashed her lips against his in another hungry kiss. He picked her up and her legs wrapped around his waist. Cupping her ass, he walked them both into the bedroom, their lips never parting.

As soon as he sat her down, on the hotel's big fluffy bed, she reached for his pants. She was sitting on the edge of the bed and he stood between her legs. Her fingers froze on his pants zipper. "Are you sure you want this?" She knew this wasn't exactly the time to second guess his love for her, but she didn't want him to wake up in the morning with regrets. She'd lost enough in her life already and she wasn't about to lose him. "I don't want you to regret this in the morning, Castle."

"Kate, I've never wanted anything more than I want you right now. I love you. No regrets."

"No regrets." She smiled and gave his zipper a slight tug. She removed his pants and boxers in the same movement, releasing Castle's erect cock. The sight of it awed Beckett. His smugness all these years clearly did not come from any exaggerations.

Beckett reached for him and tasted its head. Her smile widened before she looked into Castle's eyes and she licked the length of him. His eyes were dark and fiery with passion, he wanted her to continue so badly, but he would never make it to the main event if she did.

He leaned in and distracted Beckett's mouth with his own in another earth-shattering kiss. Tongues battled for dominance as Castle climbed onto the bed on top of Beckett. He unclasped her bra and removed it with the fingers of an experienced man.

His mouth made its way to her pulse point where he made wet, sloppy kisses trailing down to her heart. He kissed her heart and looked into her eyes. Beckett was almost brought to tears by this small act. It was simple, but meant so much.

Then, before she could analyze what he just did too much, Castle's mouth was around her left nipple. He alternated between sucking and flicking it with his tongue. Beckett's head fell back and she arched her back, pushing her chest farther into him. He moved his mouth to the other breath while his hands drew patterns down her stomach, worked their way around her panties, and removed them.

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiick," she moaned as he slipped a finger inside her. He was even more turned on by the sound of her moaning his name and by her wetness. She was so, so wet. And so, so warm. He wanted to be inside of her so badly, more than just his fingers.

Almost as if she read his mind, she said, "Now, Rick, I need you in me now. I can't wait much longer, and I want you in me when I have my first orgasm with you."

Castle didn't waste time and pulled his fingers out, replacing them with his long, thick cock. Once he fully entered her, he grew completely still. She had her eyes squeezed shut, trying to adjust to the feeling of him inside of her, trying to memorize these first few thoughts and feelings. He waited a moment before he said, "Look at me."

When she opened her eyes, she was shocked by the amount of love she saw on his face, and she could feel that she wore a similar expression.

"I love you, Kate."

"I love you, too, Rick."

And with that he withdrew most of his cock and slowly pushed back in. He started pumping into her and she matched him thrust for thrust. She could no longer tell where she ended and he began, they were truly one mass of sheer love.

Castle was still moving tantalizingly slow, so Beckett decided to take charge. She hooked her legs behind his and holding onto Castle's back, she flipped them in a modification of one of her ninja-cop moves, without him ever leaving her insides. Beckett was straddling him and riding him full force before he even registered that he was on his back.

"Oh, that was sexy," Castle said. Beckett smiled again, she was doing that a lot lately; she couldn't help it anymore.

She picked up the pace and soon enough, both of them were panting and moaning together. Neither of them could see straight anymore. The world around them might have stopped turning, but they never would have known. This, here, it was all that mattered. Beckett leaned down for one last kiss before they were sent over the edge. She could sense that he was close, and she knew she was too.

The waves of pleasure hit them simultaneously, filling the room with choruses of "Kate's" and "Rick's" and "I love you's." They held each other close as they came down off their highs, eyes never disconnecting.

"That was… amazing." Castle did not know what else to call it. He, the writer, should be able to think of something deep and meaningful, but 'amazing' pretty much covered it, but didn't quite measure up either. Was there a word for this?

Beckett recognized these words from their first kiss, the undercover one that did not count. Since she couldn't admit it then, she didn't hold anything back now. "Amazing doesn't even begin to describe it."

And she was right.

As they drifted off to sleep, Castle whispered sweet nothings in Beckett's ear as he held her close against his chest. Tonight, they were finally together. Tonight, the world was made of love, and for a short while, neither of them thought about murder, or death, or destruction. All was at peace with the world, and all was well.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone! Tomorrow's the big day, Ryan's getting married! I am psyched, can you tell? Oh, also, if you could all cross your fingers or something for me, I have an audition for the next few days and I'm nervous as hell. Also, if I don't get a chance to update everyday this week, that would be why.**

**So here it is, another chapter. Some M rated morning stuff at the beginning, if that bothers you, you can jump to… oh… about halfway down. Other than that, read onward! **

**Disclaimer: Castle is not mine, as much as I keep on wishing.**

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><p>Castle woke up extra early the next morning, and not wanting to disturb the lover in his arms, he watched her sleep, letting his thoughts flow freely. He thought of the beautiful woman beside him. He thought of his love for her. He thought about how he never wanted to wake up without her. He thought about the ring on her finger. Technically, Peter gave it to Phoebe, but Castle noticed Beckett wore it even when they were not strictly acting undercover. He knew that it probably did not consciously mean anything, but he thought about what it <em>could <em>mean. He liked what it could mean: Kate Castle. It had a nice ring to it.

Castle thought about how this undercover case brought them together. He thought about their life together after they solved the case. He liked what he saw. It gave him a new fire to solve the case, so he thought about that. He thought about Adicia Cromwell. Mr. Sweeney seemed to think highly of her; practically said Adi was like a big sister to Christen. But she had to be at the murder, the gash in her arm explained the blood in the murder wound. But why would she put her own arm in front of the knife as she killed her roommate?

Castle bolted upright in the bed, forgetting the sleeping beauty he held in his arms.

"Babe… what're you doin? Stay in bed." Came a groggy voice beside him.

"Adi's gash on her arm, what arm was it on?" He was alive with the energy his new idea gave him.

"I dunno… the right?" She still had her eyes closed, clearly not thrilled about the fact that she was no longer sleeping.

"So, if Adi is our killer, she would have had to use her left hand, the right would be too damaged to stab with the kind of force the killer used. Only ten percent of the population is left handed! If we can prove she's left handed, it would be that much easier to get her for the murder. We still have to wait another day or two for the DNA results to prove that she was there, but at least this is a start!"

"And how d'you suppose we go about proving that? We can't just ask her…" Beckett finally sat up at this point, wrapping her arms around his bare chest and placing her chin on his soldiers. She was still getting used to the feel of his muscles and they immediately distracted her.

Her hands distracted him as well. He turned his head for a good morning kiss. Even half awake, she astounded him.

"Morning beautiful." Castle smiled at the truth of his words. "Did you call me babe?" he began kissing her cheek and her jaw and nibbling on her ear.

"Uhh… no? Yes? Did I? I don't know I was asleep. I can't control what comes out of my mouth while I'm unconscious." _Babe? Really? I called him 'babe' that is so cheesy! Oh, God… that feels good…_

"I think it's sexy." Kiss. "You can call be 'babe'," kiss, "and I'll call you 'shnookums.'" Kiss.

"Well Castle… Ohhh, that feels gooooood… what did you have in mind… to find… out… Adi's left handednesssssss?" Beckett tried to focus on work, on bringing Christen Dunmore's killer to justice. But the things Castle was doing to her! She was spiraling up into that place of sheer bliss. He gently bit down on her right nipple and Beckett almost screamed. Between licking and flicking her nipples, giving both exceptional treatments, he explained his plan. Through Beckett's bliss, she could barely comprehend his words.

"Well, _shnookums_," licking, "I think it's as simple," sucking, "as watching her write something." Castle gave her a devilish grin as he moved south down her stomach to that all-sensitive spot. "A paper from the hospital about my lack of ability to exercise should do the trick." The vibrations from his voice against her clit drove Beckett wild. Then he started to lick and suck on that too. Beckett couldn't think straight, hell, she couldn't even see straight. Castle continued to please his woman with his tongue, all the while enjoying the way she twisted and convulsed with pleasure. As her orgasm crashed into her, he licked one long trail from her clit to her mouth and kissed her.

Then, all too soon, he was off her, throwing on a pair of boxers, and leaving for the kitchen. Beckett registered that she was alone, but she found she did not have the willpower to move so much as an inch. Before she knew it, Castle was walking back into the bedroom with a freshly made breakfast.

Castle was, yet again, awestruck by the sheer gorgeousness of Beckett. She was so perfect sprawled across their bed, completely naked, and only partially covered by a thin sheet.

At the smell of the food, Beckett finally figured out how to move again. They shared a delicious hot breakfast as they discussed the plan of action for the day. They showered together, taking longer than usual because they had to wash themselves all over again, and Castle wrote up the fake hospital papers while Beckett got dressed and dried her hair.

They walked down to the lobby hand in hand in search of Adi. The front desk instructed them that they could find her in the fitness center getting ready for the 9am yoga class.

"Adi? Can we speak to you for a minute? The hospital needs you to sign a few papers."

"Oh, sure Mr. and Mrs. Johnson!" Beckett could not stand that degree of chipper so early in the morning. It was like nails on a chalkboard.

"Alright, well since you were in charge of the class at the time, you just have to sign this form that says you followed standard procedure for a health crisis, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, you know, just standard stuff."

"Oh… sure, of course."

"Great, here's the papers and a pen." Castle set the papers down on a nearby counter and the pen in the middle of the paper. Both Beckett and Castle watched Adi's hands intently to see which hand she used to sign the paper. It hit them like a ton of bricks when Adi picked up the pen with her right hand and signed her name. They looked at each other. This meant one of two things: Adi was at the murder, but she didn't kill Christen, she was protecting her and now was too afraid to come forward, or she was completely innocent and that gash on her arm really was because she tripped.

"Oh, and Adi, I know we were talking about your friend Christen yesterday, and it was clear that you were pretty protective of her. Time will make it easier. Have you heard anything about the investigation? Are they closer to catching the killer?" Beckett fished for more information, trying to make sense of their new discovery.

"I don't think so; I haven't heard anything, except they think it was a girl. I guess that means they aren't looking into Tony, right? I don't think they should discount him so quickly."

"You know, Adi, if you know something about it, you should really tell the police. I know you can't protect her anymore, but you can protect her memory by making sure whoever did this goes to jail for a very, very long time."

"Um okay, well I have to go teach a yoga class. Gotta work to pay the rent!" and with that, Adicia was out of sight.

…

Castle and Beckett made their way to the station. They agreed to keep their new relationship under wraps because Gates would probably think that their relationship would get in the way of their work. After the case, they would be able to prove that this is not true. Beckett set the laws: no PDAs and certainly no 'schnookums.'

That didn't stop Castle for pulling Beckett into a steamy kiss in the elevator. And it certainly didn't stop him from checking out her ass as she walked out of the elevator, and this time, he didn't have to use his imagination to picture what was under her jeans.

"Okay, boys," Beckett snapped into work mode instantly, shoving all gooey thoughts of love out of her head for now, "we have a murder to solve. Did the DNA test come back yet?"

Ryan and Esposito snapped into action upon seeing Beckett, things around the station seemed to just function better when she was there. "No, but Lanie says she might be able to push them through before the end of the day."

"Great, thanks Esposito. Where are my background checks on Adicia Cromwell and Tony Camarillo?"

"Right here, Beckett. Cromwell came up clean, not even a parking ticket. Tony on the other hand has arson, assault, and a few other misdemeanors on his record. Why did you want Tony's file, though? I thought the killer was female, the DNA in the wound?" Ryan was honestly confused on this one, so what if he was a rotten person. He couldn't make his DNA pretend to be female.

"You make up stories for a living, Rick, care to take this one away?" Beckett noticed her slip-up before it was even fully out of her mouth. She didn't mean to call Castle Rick… it just happened. She hoped that the boys wouldn't notice, but judging by the twenty Ryan was handing Esposito, she guessed that not only did they notice the change, they were betting on it, too.

"Right, well Adicia more has a large gash on her right hand—a gash that would explain the blood in the murder weapon. But, she is also right handed, which means she would use that arm to stab somebody. However, a wound that large would render her incapable of using enough force to cause the amount of damage the weapon did. This means that she was likely a witness to the murder, but has been threatened into silence, and is not the actual killer. Tony supposedly beat Christen anyway, and with his record, who's to say he couldn't have done it? Adicia stuck her arm out in front of the murder weapon to protect Christen, not to kill her. The knife cut through her arm before it entered Christen's chest. That's why her DNA is in the wound. Adicia Cromwell is innocent."

Castle gave a cocky grin as everybody else took in what he had said. Richard Castle—genius—strikes again.

"You know who the killer is? Get him in here then! What are you all standing around waiting for, I want this case over with!" Gates stuck her head out of her office to say her comment and retreated again.

It was creepy how she did that.

"Well, Captain's orders, guys. Let's get this girl killing son-of-a-bitch." Nobody was surprised by Beckett's harsh words, but instead it threw them all into action. In under a minute, they were in their police cruisers rushing to The Plaza. Beckett and Castle held hands while she drove, as they each got high on the thought of another slime bag killer brought to justice at the hands of Katherine Beckett: Super Cop.


	12. Chapter 12

**Phew… Auditions rounds one and two: over. Now I am officially just waiting for (hopefully) a call back. The tension is near killing me, and I am about to fling myself off a building to end the anticipation. To avoid that scenario, I am attempting to distract myself by any means possible. **

**So… that Castle episode… "Third time's the charm." YES! Moreover, they were each other's plus one. Beautiful. **

**Thank you all for reviewing (and if you have not, you should, I would love to hear what you think. If you have, do it again). Another thank you for sticking with the story, a special shout out to ****samsamgirlFNC ****who has given this story its 100****th**** alert.**

**Okay, I've kept you all waiting long enough: on with the story. **

**Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. Still.**

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><p>Beckett raced to The Plaza. Just as she stepped out of the car, Castle pulled her back.<p>

"Kate, I know we've done this a hundred times, and been in situations a thousand times worse than this, but this is the first time I can tell you this before we go in there." Castle was looking deeply into Beckett's eyes, and something about his tone made her nervous. "I love you. You are the world to me, and no matter what, you make sure you get out alive. No matter what, you hear me?"

"Rick, you know I have to do my job, and that means doing what I have to do to put the murderer behind bars… and to protect you." She said the second part hesitantly; she was still getting the hang of this "sharing your feelings thing." Hell, it was hard enough for Beckett to admit her own feelings to herself. She was trying really, really hard not to push him away, not to snap at him, simply because it's easier. She did not want to push him away, it was just habit—a habit Beckett was trying her hardest to break.

"I don't need protecting. I want to protect you. I need to protect you."

"You're my everything Rick, I can't let you put yourself at risk for me. Everybody who has ever done that ends up dead." Then Beckett felt it. Hot, salty liquid building up in her eyes. She was not this girl. Crying? Really? _'This isn't the time or place. You have work to do.'_ Kate reminded herself.

"Look, I'm the cop, you're not. I am going to do my job. That is final." Kate ripped her hand away from Rick's, got out of the car, and slammed the door. Katherine Beckett was not one for emotions.

Detective Beckett stormed into The Plaza and headed straight for the restaurant where she knew Tony would be working. She did not wait for back up. She did not think about the public scene Gates seemed determined to avoid (mostly because she did not agree with it, why?) She did not put on her bulletproof vest to arrest the boy. She did not think about the tears she fought back. She did not think of the man she loved. She did not think of the same man she just hurt. She did not think about the hurt that caused her. Yes, Katherine Beckett was not one for emotions.

But she felt them anyway. She felt the sting of her anger. She felt the need to run. She felt the need to test the world and be defiant and reckless. She felt her love for Rick. She felt Rick's pain. She felt her own pain. Katherine Beckett felt all of this and so much more, but she was not one for emotions.

"Tony Camarillo, you are under arrest for the murder of Catherine Dunmore. You have the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."

Kate found herself in a daze. Her heart just was not in it right now. As hard as she tried, every thought came back to Rick, to the way she stormed out, and to how she already regretted her temperamental decision. This is why, as she read her Miranda Rights and reached for Tony's hands to place them in cuffs, she did not see Tony's next move coming.

Tony spun around, and suddenly, Kate was the one in Tony's grip rather than the reverse. Kate was a very strong woman, but Tony had her left arm pulled just right so all the muscles seemed to forget how to fight back. Her right hand reached for her gun, but then she felt a hard, cold object jab into her back.

"Reach for your gun and I'll shoot you Detective." His voice was as cold as ice and Beckett didn't doubt for a second that he meant what he said. She froze. She froze in the face of death all over again. Her weakness.

"Now, beautiful, without making a scene, we're going to go for a little walk up to your hotel room. You're not going to fight, you're not going to yell, and you're not going to squirm. You're going to come quietly." He gave her an extra poke with the gun to show that he meant business, then they started walking for the elevator. He stood close to her, too close, in order to hide the gun. It made her sick. Physically sick. Her stomach churned with the repulsion she felt towards this one man. She so desperately wanted to spin around and break his nose, but that gun. That one weakness.

No. Not a weakness. She tried so desperately to hold onto Esposito's words to her before when she held the rifle that almost took her life. _"Make it a strength."_ She survived. Katherine Beckett always survived. She survived her mother's murder. She survived Montgomery's murder. She survived her own attempted assassination. She survived bomb threats, serial killers, and hungry tigers. She could survive this one, too. This was her strength; everything that came at her at a million miles an hour, that force of nature that tried to rip her down with no mercy. It gave her death, yes. But it taught her life, too. And most recently, it taught her love. Death was not her strength, not even close. It was love. It was Rick. Always.

And as if Rick had heard all of this, he chose that particular moment to come running into The Plaza in almost a dead on sprint, just in time to see the woman he loved get shoved into an elevator with no respect by a low-life murderer. There was only one possible way Kate would not have this sucker cuffed and halfway to jail by now: he had a gun. He had a gun on the woman Richard Castle loved. He had messed with the wrong man. Rick processed all of this without a single falter in his sprint to save Kate. He went straight for the stairs. He knew where Tony would take her. The stairs would be faster; he could take them three at a time and never had to stop moving.

Okay… so by the fifth floor, he realized a full on sprint to the twelfth floor was a little too ambitious for his physical abilities and he became slightly fatigued. It did not stop him though. He ran and he ran like his life depended on it, and in a way, it did—Kate was his life. He was so, so sorry for the way he acted in the car. He knew Kate had to do her job, it was one of things on the continual list of reasons he loved her. He just loved her so much and did not want anything to happen to her. He realized their love for each other being out in the open now did not necessarily mean that the way they kicked butt had to change.

When he finally reached the room, the door was slightly ajar. Peering in, he saw Kate on the kneeling on the floor. She did not look scared though. She did not look frozen as she had in the face of other guns since her shooting. She looked… determined? Tony's back was to the door, obviously not good at reconnaissance. Rick slowly and soundlessly opened the door. He saw the glimmer of recognition in her eyes, but she did not look at him directly, so she did not expose his presence.

Rick sprung at Tony like a predator attacking his prey. Kate leapt from her knees and pulled her gun on Tony in one swift move. "Drop the gun!" She demanded in her unyielding cop-voice. With the tables turned, Tony could not do anything but comply.

After this initial gun debacle was over, Tony was cooperative for the rest of the arresting process. He explained how he never intended to kill Christen. It was a lover's quarrel gone wrong. Adi had seen the whole thing and tried to protect Christen. When Tony realized that he killed Christen, and even more so, realized there was a witness, he panicked and threatened Adi with her life. Tony regretted his actions. He loved Christen Dunmore, but his violent tendencies proved to be too much for him to control. He would be spending the prime of his life behind bars.

Poor Adi also faced charges for withholding information. Kate knew she would not actually spend any time in jail, though, because her life had been at risk. Rick finally got to explain why he was so hung up on the name Adicia. Apparently, she was the Greek goddess of injustice. The writer in him mused that her name truly seemed fitting now that she was facing charges after all she had been through.

After all was said and done, Kate and Rick went to the Old Haunt for a post-case drink.

"Look… Rick… I'm sorry I blew up earlier and stormed off. I'm still trying to get the hang of this. I do love you and I want in on this relationship, but I can't do it in one night and it's hard for me to share my feelings and myself, but it there's anyone I want to do that with it's you. I just—"

Rick heard enough of her ranting explanation. He knew it all already and accepted it. They found their rhythm in crime-solving, they would find it in their personal relationship, too. He shut her up with a kiss that said all of this.

He loved her and she loved him. This was healing. Healing old wounds and new scratches, it was like Mederma for their souls.

They were going to be just fine.

Then Kate realized she was still wearing Phoebe's ring. She started to play with it. She didn't exactly want to give the ring back to Rick, deep inside of herself, she liked the idea of it there. She could not exactly keep it either, though. It was not hers. She slid it off her finger in an action that made both of them sad.

"Rick, you need to take this back. It belongs to Phoebe. Not me." She wondered what he would say. But she never expected what actually came out of his mouth.

"You're right." That was it. Then he took the ring and slipped it into his pocket.


	13. Chapter 13

**For those who asked about my audition, thank you for your best wishes. I just got home from THREE call backs. I'm excited. The list goes up tomorrow. **

**Just a few words to people who do not like this story... I have nothing wrong with constructive criticism, but for all the tea in China, I cannot figure out one thing: why did it take you until chapter twelve to figure out that you hate the story? **

**Thanks again for all who support this story, I appreciate it and love hearing your thoughts. **

**More M rated stuff in this chapter. Not all of it, though. You'll know it when you see it. Hopefully.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. Andrew Marlowe, Will Beall, and ABC get that lucky privilege.**

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><p>They did not go home with each other that night. Each one missed their own beds, and Kate was still trying to decipher the look on Rick's face when he took the ring. She did not really expect him to be so… open to taking it back. She was not hurt, no, little things like that would not hurt Kate, but she was perplexed, and that did not happen very often.<p>

With each one back at their apartments safe and sound, they found themselves lonely. Sure, they remembered their pre-living together bedtime routines, but it was not easy to go back to after experiencing life together.

Rick's bed was too large without Kate in it. He imagined that she was there, like he had so many times before they were together, and as good as Richard Castle's imagination was, nothing could replace the actual bliss of Kate in his arms.

Kate's bed as too cold without Rick's radiating heat to warm her up. She wrapped herself in extra blankets. That used to be enough to warm her. But now that she had experienced the actual warmth of Rick and his love, no blanket could work as well.

They both lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking of each other. Then, Kate almost fell out of bed when her phone rang and shattered the intense silence and her happy thoughts of Rick.

"Hulloo?" She answered sleepily. She had a long day and really wanted sleep. She just could not force her mind to shut down.

"Kate… uh did I wake you up?"

"Nah. I couldn't sleep."

"I miss you, Kate." They both could taste the understatement in his words.

"Same. I got used to having you in bed with me. It's weird, we only lived together for a few days, but it already seems more natural than sleeping alone."

"You could have come to my loft. I did invite you." He knew that she couldn't _really _come. It was his first night home with his daughter, and even though Kate and Alexis got along really well, it wouldn't be right to spring his intimate relationship on his daughter so quickly.

"You could have come to my apartment. I did invite you." She knew that he couldn't because he had to get home to Alexis. She loved Alexis and she understood the need for one-on-one father daughter time. She admired Rick as a father.

"I do know that I also like starting my day with breakfast with you before we head to the precinct. I'm not asking, so I'll see you here at seven-thirty."

"Fine. Seven-thirty." Kate yawned. She was drifting off to sleep, hearing Rick's voice really did the trick. She still missed the warm cocoon of his body up against hers, but this was better than being alone.

"I love you, Kate. Always"

"I love you, too, Rick. Goodnight."

Rick and Kate were both out within minutes after they hung up. Kate realized that for the first time, she actually wanted to spend almost every waking minute with her boyfriend. When did she become that girl? She was asking that a lot lately, but she did not mind it so much. Rick made her happier than she had ever been.

Rick fell asleep thinking of Kate and counting down the hours before he saw her. He looked over to the ring on his nightstand. That ring looked so beautiful on her hand. Rick never thought he would be thinking about getting married for a third time. The last two were hell and he did not want that ever again. But Kate would be different. He felt different about Kate.

Seven-thirty could not come fast enough for the both of them. Kate knocked on Rick's door. Martha walked up behind her then, doing the walk of shame. Well, with Martha, it was more the strut of shame. When Martha saw Kate standing in the hallway, she took one look at the smile on Kate's face just from her close proximity to Rick and exclaimed "Finally you two! Now why are you standing out here when you have a man in there?" Then she let Kate into the loft and went straight upstairs to recover from her night.

When Kate saw Rick, he was standing in the kitchen cooking with an incredibly determined look on his face. She smiled, seeing Rick again, even after being apart for less than ten hours, was like falling in love all over again. He had not seen her yet, so she decided to surprise him.

She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, and in her most seductive voice, almost a low moan in itself, said "Good morning Writer-Boy," and began to nibble on his ear.

"It's Writer-Man, Kate. I think I've already proved that one to you." Rick turned around and pulled Kate in for a kiss. When they parted, Kate licked her lips.

"Remind me."

Rick was on Kate in seconds. He lifted her onto the counter and stood between her legs, their food forgotten. Rick was massaging Kate's breasts, kneading them with his dexterous fingers while she sucked his pulse point and kissed his neck. Her hands traveled south, down into his pants, and around his already hard cock. Then she froze. They were in the middle of Rick's kitchen with his mother and daughter who knows where in the loft.

"What about Alexis and Martha?"

"Alexis went to school early to work on an extra credit project and mother won't be down until noon."

Kate smiled a seductive grin and leaped off the counter. She grabbed the can of whipped cream off the counter and knelt down, her face inches from his hungry cock. The whipped cream was originally for their French toast, but she had better ideas. She pulled down his pants and boxers all too slowly and sprayed a long strip of whipped cream from the base of his shaft to the head and back down the other side. It took every ounce of Rick's self-control to keep him from bucking his hips into her face.

Kate's large, intense eyes never left Rick's fierce blue as she stuck out her tongue and licked the whipped cream off the tip of his head. Liking what she tasted, she went back for more, this time, licking all the whipped cream off Rick's large and hard cock. When the whipped cream was gone, she whispered "tasty" and began to suck his dick. And if the whipped cream wasn't already about to send him over the edge, this sure would.

"You, my dear, are going to be the death of me." He pulled Kate up to his mouth and kissed her passionately. These kisses, they meant the world to him. He was euphoric that she was standing here, all his—his beautiful detective.

His fingers found their way down into her pants and it turned him on even more to see how wet she was for him. He sat her back onto the counter, sliding one finger inside of her, shortly followed by another. The things he could do to her were like magic. He twisted and turned his fingers so they hit her in just the right spot. He removed his fingers and replaced them with his cock. Wasting no time, he started pumping into her with no restraint. As a writer, Rick tried to think of a word to describe the feelings he felt. It was sheer bliss. It was passion. It was happiness. It was love. That was as far as he got before all coherent thought escaped him. It was pure animalistic passion. There was no telling where she stopped and he began. Soon, they both fell over the edge together. He held her close, and she bit down on his shoulder to stifle her cries so they didn't disturb Martha. They stayed like that for a while, Kate sitting on the counter, nuzzled into him, with her legs wrapped around him and Rick holding her back.

Neither of them spoke, but it was a comfortable silence, a loving silence.

Then, the smoke alarm went off, and their breakfast caught fire. In their impromptu lovemaking session, he had forgotten turn off the stove. They put the fire out, no problem, but it was enough to wake them up from their trances and remind them that they were now late for their first day back at work since being undercover.

On their way into the precinct, Kate looked over to Rick, "Well, Writer-Man, that was a fantastic breakfast."

"And don't I know it! I think we should start every morning this way."

The elevator opened, and their conversation about morning sex ended. They walked over to Kate's desk and she began her paperwork. They tried to act like everything was normal, they could feel Ryan and Esposito watching them.

"Hey, guys, how's it goin'?

"Hey you two." You two? What was that implying?

Kate tried to tell herself that it was nothing and continued her work, looking up every so often into the face of the man she loved. She always thought that the way he watched her do paperwork with such intent was weird, but she realized now, that she could probably sit and watch him write for hours and never get tired of looking at his face.

"Hey Castle, get in here!" Esposito and Ryan called to him from one of the interrogation rooms. That was odd. Rick gave Kate a nervous glance, but obeyed the order. Why would they need him in an empty interrogation room?

"Hey Espo, what do you need?" he tried to sound cheerful, but the hardened looks on Ryan and Esposito's faces said that this was anything but a cheerful conversation.

"Sit down, Castle." Ryan ordered. The guy were rarely this serious around him.

"I didn't kill anyone, I swear!" Castle put his arms up in a gesture of innocence, but sat down anyway.

"But if you hurt Beckett, we will kill you, you got that?" Esposito was downright scary. There was no question about whether he meant it.

"Who told you about us?"

"Lanie can't keep a secret. Now back to our point, if you ever hurt Beckett in any way at all, you're going to be wishing you were never born."

"I love her."

"That doesn't mean you can't hurt her. We see murderers everyday who loved their victims. Beckett's like our sister, and we will do what it takes to protect her, so you had better be on your best behavior from here on out."

"I would never hurt her, I want to marry her."

"Marry her?" Now Ryan and Esposito were the ones to be surprised.

"I love her more than anything, short of Alexis of course, and by some lucky miracle, she happens to love me back. I am not going to just let that go. I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

"Is that what you said about the last two women you married? Because that didn't end well, and if you lead her on like that and you're not positive it is going to last, they might never even find all of your body. Do you understand?"

"Understood." Damn, these people really knew how to intimidate in an interrogation room.

"Then we're okay. Did you get the new COD: Black Ops Zombies App?" Ryan had been waiting to play that App for a month.

"Of course man! Do you want to try? It is so cool. Zombies everywhere."

"Duh!" Ryan snatched the phone. "Thanks man."

"Me next!"

"Dude, this is epic!"

The trio walked out of the interrogation room and Beckett was glad to see all of her boys back to their usual selves. She watched them play for a little bit, just letting herself be happy.


	14. Chapter 14

**I GOT THE PART!**

**OKAY SO LIFE MADE. ON WITH THE STORY.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle and I'm too happy to think of anything slightly witty.**

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><p>Kate sat at her desk wondering what took Rick an hour and a half to pick up their pizza for lunch when Gates called her in to her office.<p>

"Beckett, sit down."

"Yes sir."

"I want to thank you and Mr. Castle for your work on the Dunmore case. Well done."

"Well done?" That was _weird_. Weird did not even begin to cover it.

"Yes. You did a commendable job."

"Sir, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Theodore...uh… Mr. Sweeney asked me to express his gratitude to you and Mr. Castle. He also says you two make a beautiful couple." Gates raised her eyebrows. Could nothing stay private?

Theodore? It was Beckett's turn to raise her eyebrows. Either Beckett was imagining things, or there was a hint of affection when Gates said Mr. Sweeney's name. It made sense now, all that undercover nonsense to protect the hotel's image. It was for a boy. Beckett would have been mad before, but that undercover mission gave her the world. Nevertheless, she was still surprised to see that Gates had a life outside of work, let alone a romantic one. This feeling was much akin to the old feeling of seeing the strictest teacher at school out in public. She was happy for her boss, but the thought still made her shudder.

"Anyway, Detective Beckett, the real reason I have you in here is to tell you to leave it at home, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, sir."

…

Castle must have been to three different jewelers today, and he still hadn't picked up their pizza. If he was going to do this, it had to be perfect. Finally, he found someone who said they could do the job right, so he left the jeweler to his business and went to pick up the pizza. He forgot what Beckett had asked for, since his eagerness to get the pizza was mostly a ruse to go to the jewelry store without suspicion, so he just got one of everything.

Carrying the load of pizzas, he went back to the jeweler to collect the ring. It was even better than he hoped.

"Beckett, pizza, yours, here." Beckett couldn't help but laugh when she saw Rick standing there holding a stack of pizzas so tall that his head was hidden behind it.

"Hungry, Castle?"

"Well I didn't eat breakfast if you remember," and leaning into Kate's ear, so only she could hear his next comment, he said, "but this pizza will never be as good as breakfast this morning."

And just like that, she felt the need to jump him and have her way with him on the nearest surface, not dissimilar to their breakfast incident. It took everything she had to make her stop thinking about breakfast, her new favorite meal of the day, the main course: a heaping serving of handsome mystery writer.

"So… uh…. What took you so long? You left two hours ago and left me alone to have a pleasant conversation with Gates."

"Pleasant? Is that code for totally torturous and anything but pleasant?"

"No. It was pleasant. That's what's creepy." She took a slice of pepperoni while she watched Rick's face. It was fun to watch his face. It was easy to read and always interesting.

Rick shuddered at the thought. Maybe he heard it wrong.

"Pleasant?"

"Pleasant."

"Sorry about that."

"She knows about us."

"Oh, shit. She wants me gone, right? Personal and work relationships? I'm sorry. I could call the mayor, but that might make it worse. I'll leave. We can still see each other after you get off work and everything. Keep me up to speed on all the freaky cases though, okay?" Rick was upset. He loved being able to spend all day with Kate, but their relationship was more important than playing cop.

"Rick, slow down. You didn't let me finish. She's okay with it." Rick almost choked.

"W-w-wh-at? Okay with it? Did you bribe her?"

"No, Gates has a soft spot. I think the macho thing is mostly a façade."

"Maybe you're right. You should eat more pizza though, because I have eight boxes and you've only eaten two slices."

They invited the boys over to help them with the pizza, and even sent a box into Gates' office. They invited her out, but she'd already shown her soft side once today and refused. Rick's hand rested on Kate's thigh underneath the table. Rick admired the picture of the four friends sharing a meal, the three guys discussing the latest video games, the two people completely in love, and the one happiest guy on earth.

Kate finally finished her paperwork, and with no dead bodies, she was clear to leave. Rick and Kate decided to talk to Alexis, but Kate thought it would be better if Rick talked to his daughter alone first. She would come over later for dinner if things went well with Alexis.

…

"Pumpkin! Hey, how are you? How was school?"

"Uh, fine Dad. You're happy." Alexis was no idiot, she knew that Kate Beckett was a huge part of how happy her father was lately.

"Alexis, do you have a minute to talk?"

"Is it about Detective Beckett? I already told you I was okay with it, or is your memory that short?"

"I want to marry her. I want her to move in. And I want us to be a family. I'm not talking tomorrow, but I want you to know what my intentions are. Pumpkin, it's not going to happen in one night, but I am going to propose tonight. If you really don't want me to, though, then just say the word."

"Oh. Tonight, Dad?"

"Only if it's okay with you. And this doesn't mean we'd be getting married tomorrow, just that we'd get hitched at some point to each other."

"Dad, I approve of Kate, it's obvious how happy she makes you and she's made you a better person over the last four years, so I can't tell you that you're not allowed to make that a permanent thing. Just, tell me before you get on the plane to Vegas, okay?"

"Pumpkin, you do know that nothing can change the relationship we have. I might be marrying Kate, but I will always love you too, and never any less than I always have. Besides, Kate's not really a Vegas wedding kind of gal."

"I just can't help but feel that she's going to replace me after I go to college." That wounded Rick. Alexis literally meant the world to him. Yes, he loved Kate more than anything, but the love he held for his own little redheaded genius daughter was something special between him and Alexis.

"That would never happen." It was impossible. Two different kinds of love, replacement was not an option. He wanted both Kate and Alexis, even if it made him selfish. He needed them both.

"Well, she is the best possible person you could want to marry. Dad, I'm not opposed to you marrying her, I know that's what it probably sounds like, but I'm not. You and Detective Beckett are perfect for each other. I just did not see this coming so soon."

"Sorry, pumpkin, I did not mean to blindside you. I didn't want to keep this relationship hidden from you. I wanted it all on the table, crystal clear. Now, if it's okay with you, I'd love to have Kate over for dinner tonight. Maybe you two can get to know each other better."

"Okay, Dad." She took a deep breath, "that sounds good."

Rick smiled with relief and sent Kate a text: _It's all clear for dinner tonight. Pack a bag because I refuse to go to bed without you. In fact, pack a very large bag; you're staying for a while._

Kate's chest twisted and her heart skipped a beat when she deciphered the end of Rick's text. Was he asking her to move in? She got ready for dinner, wearing something cute, but not too raunchy since Alexis would be there, and packed a bag for three days and several sexy nights.

Dinner proved to be altogether uneventful. The atmosphere was slightly awkward at first, but then Kate made a joke at Rick's expense that had Alexis in stitches. The mood softened and Alexis found that she really liked having Kate around. She knew that she was good for her father, but, just maybe, Kate was good for her, too. And it certainly did wonders for her dad's ego.

Rick insisted on doing the dishes and cleaning, and the girls went into the living room to pick a movie. They were talking about school dances when Alexis suggested _Footloose _(not really Kate's style). Kate told a story about an awful homecoming dance from her high school days and Alexis mentioned that her school's Winter Ball was rapidly approaching.

"Winter Ball? That sounds… cute."

"More like nauseating, but I still have to go because I signed on for the committee to put on my applications, I'm aiming for well-rounded when I re-apply to Stanford."

"Well that's fantastic, I'm sure you'll have a great time. Do you have a dress?"

"No, I haven't really gotten the chance to go shopping yet. Hey… um… if you don't mind Detective Beckett, would you want to… help me pick out a dress?" Alexis immediately second guessed her words, so she decided to give Beckett a way out, "Only if you want to though!"

"Alexis, please, call me Kate, or Beckett, or anything really, but you don't need to put the 'detective' in front of it. And I would love to look for a dress with you. I can pick you up Thursday, if you're free, after work and we'll hit the shops. That'd be great." Kate was a little taken with Alexis. She always liked Alexis, but now she found it easy to want to spend time with her. She did not want to be Alexis' mother—she had one of those—whether she was around or not, and she did not really think a BBF arrangement would be comfortable for either of them, but Kate found herself wanting to be a part of Alexis' life, in some way or another, more and more.

"Great. Fantastic. Thursday it is. Oh, how about _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_?"

"YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES!" Came the eager voice of Rick from the kitchen.

Beckett laughed quietly and rolled her eyes, but said, "Sounds perfect." It was a double meaning if she ever heard one. She could get used to the Castle family.

…

That night, after Alexis went to bed, and after a steamy round of letting the day's pent-up sexual feelings out, Kate lay naked on Rick's equally naked torso.

"Thanks for coming to dinner, Kate. And for agreeing to take Alexis dress shopping. If you'd rather not, though, that's fine. I'm sure mother would be thrilled to dress Alexis up like a Barbie doll."

"What do you mean 'if I don't want to'? Of course I want to, I did say yes, remember? Alexis is a great girl and I'd love to go dress shopping with her."

Rick was overjoyed to hear this. None of his wives ever paid Alexis the attention she deserved, and here Kate was, offering herself up to the job. It solidified in his mind that Katherine Beckett would be the last woman for Richard Castle. He had never been surer of anything in his entire life.

They lay there like that for a while longer. Rick was writing something on Kate's back and Kate tried desperately to decipher the message. Finally, she said "Katherine."

"What?"

"You're writing Katherine on my back."

"That was an easy one. Betchya can't guess the next one, though."

Kate focused everything in her on Castle's fingers on her bare back.

?-L-O-?E-Y-O-?

I-L-O-V-E-Y… "I love you!" Kate exclaimed.

"I love you, too. Always. One more."

W-?-L-L-?-O-?-M-?-R-R-?-M-?

W-?-L-L-Y-O-?-M-A-R-R-?-M-E

W-I-L-L-Y-O-U-M-A-R-R-Y-M-E _What! No, she had to be feeling things wrong. _

W-I-L-L-Y-O-U-M-A-R-R-Y-M-E _No, no, she felt right._

"Castle…?"

"Yes, dear?"

"What are you writing on my back…?"

Kate looked up to Rick's face, but instead, her eyes met something else entirely. Her eyes fixed upon a diamond ring, not dissimilar to the one she wore undercover, but the band was different. She was just close enough to make out the inscription on the inside that read _"Always"_ in fancy letters.

"Katherine Beckett, I love you. Will you marry me?"


	15. Chapter 15

**Sorry, that ending in chapter 14 was very mean. I generally try not to be a mean person, but I'll admit, that was a little fun. Now… to redeem myself or not to redeem myself? These are the questions. I make no promises either way, that, my dear friend, would be spoilers. **

**I hope you like it, let me know.**

**So, onward!**

**Disclaimer: still ain't mine.**

*****so, if you got 2 Chapter 15 alerts, it's because for whatever reason, the link was broken. I have deleted the first one and added it again. Hopefully this one works... **

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><p>"What!" <em>What! M-m-m… the "m" word!<em>

"Wait, Kate, before you freak out—"

"Too late Castle! You proposed!" Kate shoved herself up from Rick's chest into a sitting position with panic clear on her face. Could she marry Rick? Could she even get married? She was never the girl to spend hours envisioning her wedding or her husband. She never gave it too much thought at all. Then she saw her father's heartbreak after her mother's death. She saw broken husbands and wives everyday in her line of work. Could she open herself up to that? What should she say! She had to say something. Losing Rick was not an option. Marrying him was so much, so fast. But if she did not, she could alienate him. But if she did it could end badly. But if—

"I don't want an answer now, Kate. I love you. Always. I've thought about this long and hard. I want you in my life forever. I need you in my life forever. You should give this the same consideration I have and be completely sure when you give me an answer. Just think about it, okay? And this doesn't mean we'll get married right away. I just want my intentions to be clear. I love you, and more than anything, I hope that someday you will be my wife."

They sat there in silence while Kate processed Rick's words. They calmed her a little bit. Even just hearing "I love you," even though she already knew that, and his classic "always," did wonders for what might have been a panic attack in a few seconds.

"It's a beautiful ring…" Kate finally said, the words barely audible.

"Does that mean you'll think about it?" the eagerness in Rick's voice touched her. She nodded as she moved back into Rick's arms. She sat with her back resting on Rick's chest and took the ring from his hands. His arms encircled her and he watched her closely while she examined it.

"The diamonds are the same from Phoebe's ring. You seemed to like it then, and now it will always have the memories of the case that brought us together. I had the band changed to match your mother's wedding ring, the one you wear around your neck. I just thought that maybe you'd… maybe you'd like to use that wedding ring, it's sentimental and all. If you don't want to, that's fine too, I'm good for the money to buy new wedding bands, but at least this gives you the option. Whatever you decide."

Kate, felt warm liquid rising up in her eyes at the mention of her mother. Her wedding ring… it was perfect. And the band on the engagement ring truly was a perfect match. The rings were a perfect match… were Kate and Rick?

Rick watched Kate. She had her thinking face on. He knew it well because he witnessed it often at the precinct. She was thinking about him, about them, and about their possible future. It was really okay that she didn't have an answer yet. He didn't want one yet. This had to be done right, which meant they both had to be sure. He was a patient man anyway; he could wait.

The comfortable silence began to make them both tired. Kate put the ring on the nightstand and curled into Rick's body. Just before Kate rested her head on Rick's chest, she leaned up and gave him a goodnight kiss. It said that she still wanted to be with him. It said he would wait for her. It said she loved him. And it said he always would. Always. Kate didn't know much about the word 'always' from experience, but Rick was teaching her. Over the past four years, hadn't he always been there? Hadn't he always protected her? Hadn't he always treated her right? Now he was offering his love up to her—always. It wasn't an altogether _bad_ thought, she decided.

They drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

_BRRIIIIIINNNNNNG! !_

"Beckett," came her standard phone answer; only this time it sounded groggy and unwelcoming. She desperately wanted to just ignore the call, but odds were that it would be work.

"We've got a fresh one."

Beckett got the location of New York City's latest murder and regrettably climbed out of bed to put clothes on.

"No, don't do that…" groaned Rick.

"Put clothes on? I have to, Rick, I can't show up naked to a crime scene."

"Now there's a fantasy." Kate rolled her eyes at Rick's comment as he, too, got out of bed to put clothes on.

…

At the crime scene, Lanie crouched beside the victim while a dozen others collected evidence.

"Who's the vic?" asked Kate as she and Rick approached Lanie and the victim, who looked to be a young man, maybe early twenties, clean cut, and dressed well.

"The name's Edmund Burke. He and his fiancé were walking home after a night on the town when he was shot down in front of her. One bullet, straight to the heart, from a close range."

"So the fiancé saw the whole thing? Did she see the shooter? Where is she?" Castle, eager to catch another scumbag started considering the possibilities of a well-dressed man shot down in the middle of the night. Mafia member? Government conspiracy? Maybe he was a spy. Maybe he was a scientist working on a top secret operation and another country put a hit on him. Government mafia scientific spy conspiracy?

"She's over there," Lanie pointed to a woman standing by an ambulance wearing a shock blanket, "she was barely able to give us her fiancé's name and she won't speak. Severe shock."

"I'm going to try to talk to her. Maybe I can help." Kate was usually really good with the loved ones of a murder victim. It wasn't years as a cop that gave her this ability, though. It was the years she spent as the daughter of a murder victim, and more recently, it was the time she spent as an almost murder victim. She understood their feelings. She understood the shock and the confusion and the pain and the sorrow and the agony. She related to them. She felt them. She cared about them. And they could sense this.

"Hang on a second, girl. Did you two come here together? In the middle of the night?" Lanie looked at her best friend with raised eyebrows. Kate had been holding out on her.

Kate's cheeks reddened and she gave a guilty nod.

Rick, however, was proud and eagerly said,"Yep!" while he slid his arm around Kate's waist.

"Damn, girl, we need to talk."

"Actually, I need to talk to Ed's fiancé first, but first thing in the morning, I promise." Kate hurried off to the fiancé and Laine and Rick exchanged glances.

"It's about time, Castle."

"I know, she's perfect isn't she?" Rick adoringly watched Kate. He admired how much she cared about helping the living and giving justice to the dead. She really was perfect.

"You've got it bad mister."

"I do."

"Practicing?"

"I hope so."

Lanie raised her eyebrows at Rick one more time before focusing her attention back on Edmund Burke: murder victim.

…

"Excuse me, I'm Detective Beckett. I'm so sorry about your fiancé, miss."

The woman looked up at the Detective, only because of the sincerity in her words. Her eyes were red and puffy and streaks from her tears stained her face. Kate looked into the woman's big blue eyes and saw so much grief, grief that was not unfamiliar to her.

"Thank you Detective. I just… he was my everything and I had just agreed to marry him tonight. He'd been asking for almost a year now. If only I agreed sooner, we'd be married already and doing married people things instead of walking around the city after midnight. He'd be okay right now…"

The woman trailed off, the heartbreak apparent in her words and in her silence.

"This is not your fault—excuse me… what's your name?"

"E—Evangeline… he called me his angel…"

"Miss Evangeline, this is not your fault," Kate started again, "but whoever did this, I promise you that I will find the person who did do this and I will give your fiancé justice. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Someone shot at him," Evangeline started with the obvious, "we—we were just—just walking down the street… an—and then he s-s-stops and falls," a tear ran down her cheek, though Kate experienced this stuff every day, it still broke her heart to see the pain, "and he's-he's bl-bleeding in my arms. I told him not to die, I told him. I told him I-I loved him," the tears were flowing freely now, "but he was already gone…" she took a deep shaky breath.

"Miss Evangeline, I am so sorry. Did you see the shooter?"

"No… before he… before it happened… it was just like we were the only two people around. Then afterwards I was too caught up in Eddy and that awful blood… I never even thought to look up. How could I have been so stupid?"

"It's okay Miss Evangeline. We will find who did this. I promise you that, I am very good at my job."

"She is." Rick approached the women with a smile only a man in love can produce. The smile made her weak in the knees and gave her the strongest urge to just jump him right then and there. _'Now there's a fantasy' _her thoughts echoed back to Rick's words at the loft. She mentally kicked herself for even considering the idea. It took all her will power to turn her mind back to the investigation and away from Rick.

"Thanks Rick. Can you go see what Ryan and Espo have dug up so far? Tell them to look for nearby street or ATM cams." She loved him, and so much wanted him to stay with her, but it would be wrong to flaunt her growing relationship in front of the mourning almost Mrs. Burke. Hmm… could she be an almost Mrs. Castle? Mrs. Castle. Mrs. Kate Castle. Kate fought back a smile as she realized how much Writer-Boy would appreciate the alliteration. Wait—murder… solve first, plan future later.

"Were there any people that did not like Mr. Burke, anybody giving him trouble? People he maybe said gave him a hard time?"

"Umm… no, Eddy is… was a great guy. Really sweat, even to total strangers. That's how we met." The memories of Eddy and remembering that now it is all past tense brought on a new wave of tears.

"Was there any reason somebody would want Mr. Burke dead? Maybe something he was working on?" Kate asked the standard questions, knowing Evangeline did not want to answer them, but she needed to hear it to wrap this thing up as soon as possible, to bring the closure and justice she was accustomed to giving but never getting.

"As a banker? No, occasionally the angry customer, yes, and there's always the risk of a hold up, that always used to have me so worried that he would get hurt, but all of that would only happen at work. I thought it dangerous. It was part of my hesitation in marrying him. If only I knew this would happen. I knew I loved him, I knew I could never imagine a world without him, yet here I am without him. I should have said yes sooner…"

"Thank you Miss Evangeline. If you think of anything important, just let me know, okay. I'm so, so sorry. There was nothing you could do to stop this. None of it was your fault."

As she walked away, her thoughts returned to Castle. Evangeline waited a whole year to say yes to Edmund. In the end, it would probably always be her greatest regret and 'what if.' Kate saw a lot of herself and her own hesitation on that one life-changing question in Evangeline and Edmund's story. Evangeline loved Edmund, but did not know if she wanted to marry him for a whole year, even though she knew she could not picture life without him. Kate really could not help but draw the obvious parallels.

Kate knew there was no living in a life without Rick in it. Kate knew she loved him. Kate knew she never would stop loving him. Kate knew that she loved Rick's family. Kate knew she wanted to be a part of it. Kate knew Rick was the best thing that ever happened to her. Kate knew Rick would always treat her right. Kate knew that matching the engagement ring to her mother's wedding ring was the sweetest thing any guy had ever done for her. But she did not know if she wanted to marry Rick. And she did not know why.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey wassup guys! I regret to inform you that this may be the last chapter. Or maybe I'll do one more. Two? Maybe an epilogue? I don't know, guys. What do you want? Let me know, popular vote wins.**

**Either way, I want you all to know, that I had a blast writing this story, you all are fantastic and I loved hearing from so many of you.**

**As always, I hope you enjoy reading the chapter as much as I loved writing it.**

**Disclaimer: sixteen chapters later, and I still do not own Castle (in case you haven't figured it out yet).**

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><p>The case turned out to be moderately easy to solve. As it turned out, three different street cameras and an ATM camera had caught the whole thing on tape. Kate showed Evangeline the pictures of the shooter. She identified him as one Riley Brown, her jealous ex-boyfriend. He was a nervous little fellow and confessed within minutes. Kate called Evangeline in one last time to give her closure, to tell Evangeline the truth that Kate might never get for herself.<p>

"So the bullet, it was meant for me?" Evangeline asked at the precinct, tears flowing all over again. Her Eddy could be alive right now; she was supposed to be dead. It was her fault.

"No, not at all. He aimed for Mr. Burke. He wanted you alive, hoped you would come crawling back to him in your grief. He completely forgot about street cameras and cops."

"B-b-but that would never happen. I wouldn't go back to him in a million years. I don't even know how I'll ever love again…" Kate understood Evangeline perfectly. If she ever lost Rick, there was no way she would ever love again, not to mention live again. She wanted to tell Evangeline to have hope, to have faith that things would turn out okay, but that would be hypocritical and she always tried to be honest to the grieving. Instead she just stretched her arm out and placed it on Evangeline's shoulder.

Evangeline's big, sad eyes looked up at Kate's, "Detective Beckett, is that how you feel about him?" she pointed to Rick, who was fiddling with an uncooperative coffee machine. Kate felt a loving smile creep to her lips.

Her cheeks reddened, but she nodded anyway. There really was not much point in denying it.

"Don't waste the time you have with him," Evangeline said with a newfound passion in her voice, "if I've learned anything these past thirty-six hours, I've really learned not to take life for granted. Treasure your time with him, Detective Beckett, don't leave anything for tomorrow."

Thoughts of the proposal filled her mind. She still had no answer. Already getting married seemed too fast, but there was no way she wanted to say no. Yes just meant so much, though. She'd really made no progress since Rick asked her. And he was so patient, he never pressured her about it at all! She really did not know what to do. This case never allowed her to forget it either. Evangeline never got her chance, could Kate stand the same?

No, she could not.

"Thank you, Evangeline. I'm so sorry for your loss."

Evangeline thanked Kate for catching Riley, stood, and exited the 12th for, what she hoped, would be the last time. Outside, she took a deep breath of fresh winter air, she did not understand how the sun could shine on a day like today. She headed for her empty home to figure out her new life.

Kate continued to watch Rick and think about how much she loved him. She now knew that someday she did want to be married to Richard Castle. She realized that he was everything to her, that a single day without him would feel wrong. Rick felt the same way about her. That's why he asked her to marry him, not so they could make it legal tomorrow, but so he could say that making it legal at some point in the future was his intention. She realized that now.

Kate knew that one day, beyond a shadow of a doubt, she wanted to be Mrs. Kate Castle. For a moment, watching Castle, still fighting with the coffee machine, Kate saw their life together. Wonderful loving days, and wild passionate nights. Dinners with Martha, Rick, and Alexis. She would joke with Martha, usually at Rick's expense. Maybe her and Alexis could grow closer, she'd like that. Thinking of Alexis, Kate thought about their dress-shopping escapade later today. Did Alexis know that her dad proposed? Kate decided to wait and see if she brought it up.

But if she wanted to go anywhere this afternoon, she had some paperwork to do.

…

"Well, you ladies have a good time," Rick smile as his two favorite people left his loft together.

"One last thing, Dad…"

"What's that?"

"Your credit card." Alexis said matter-of-factly and stuck out her hand.

"So, that's it… you two only like me for my money."

"Yep, sounds about right, Rick." Kate smiled sarcastically. Rick put on a fake pout, but reached in his wallet to retrieve his credit card, handing it over to Kate.

"We'll be back later, maybe if you're lucky, Kate will bring you back a treat." Rick and Kate nearly choked on the possible implications of Alexis' words, but as they both walked out the door, Kate turned over her shoulder to wink at Rick.

…

Kate and Alexis went to four different stores (granted, one was only to find a toy for Rick, they ended up getting him a miniature Nerf gun that could hook onto a belt) before they found the perfect dress. It was royal blue and flowing, tasteful, but not conservative. It accentuated her fiery hair and made Alexis look magnificent. Just as they paid for it, Alexis finally asked the question she'd been meaning to ask all night.

"Are you marrying my dad?" the words came out fast, and Alexis shut her eyes like she was bracing for impact. She was not sure if she could talk to Kate about these things, but they were talking about boys in Alexis' life, so she could ask about boys in Kate's life… right?

"Umm… he asked me." Kate did not really know what to say, sure, she had made up her mind, but she had not told Rick yet. Was it fair to tell his daughter that he was engaged before he knew?

"Well I know that, he asked my permission. Kindof. What'd you say?" It couldn't be bad news, they were still together and her dad wasn't curled up in a ball crying. But, there was no ring on her finger, so could it be good news?

"I… uh… I haven't told him yet." Honesty was the best policy, Kate thought. Besides, Alexis was smart; there was no fooling her. Kate bit her lip in anticipation of Alexis' answer. She wanted things to be good between them, this could ruin it.

"Does that mean you're going to say no? You cannot do that to my dad, he loves you so much. And I just wrapped my mind around you probably being a permanent part of my life. And I liked that. You're so perfect for him and I know you love him, so why not? Is it me? I'm leaving for college soon, you really won't have to deal with me if you don't want to. And—" Alexis' eyes were big with panic as she rambled about why Kate could not refuse her father.

"Alexis, honey, I'm going to say yes. I just decided today and I really haven't had the chance to tell him yet. I love your dad, and you, you're fantastic, how could you think I wouldn't want you around. I hope you come home from college to visit often, Alexis. I was actually worried that _you _didn't want _me _around."

"Really? Oh, that's great, congratulations, Kate," they hugged, something Kate was not used to, but did not really mind, "I'm so happy for you two. You know that I approve of your relationship. I was not sure about him getting married again, but it is you. You and him will last, I know it. Just give me time to officially get used to it, okay? Please don't run off to City Hall in the morning?"

"No, no, of course not Alexis. I think it's going to be a while before any official documents are signed. I'm still getting used to this too."

Both of them were relieved to clear this up. Alexis was glad that her father found a good woman. Kate was glad Alexis did not hate her. They finished paying and went to get some hot chocolate to wrap up the night. At the café, Alexis ran into a bunch of friends and Kate told her to go be with them. She went back to the loft to find her future fiancé.

…

Rick was in his office working on his latest novel. Kate stood in the doorway watching him work. She could have been there for hours, she did not really know. He looked so peaceful writing. A little determined. Very creative. His brow furrowed in the cutest way, and every now and then he would crinkle his nose, tighten his lips, and press the backspace button for a lengthy amount of time. It was only after the third time that Rick erased his writing that he let out a frustrated growl and Kate let out a small giggle that he noticed her presence.

"Oh, hey Kate. I was just writing."

"I see that." Her smile widened. "Having issues?"

"Well, I missed my muse. Maybe if you came closer your powers would work better." He slid back is chair and motioned for her to join him. Of course, Kate obliged, pushing herself off of the doorway she leaned on. She still thought the concept of her as a 'muse' was weird, but she did not fight him on it.

"You know, Rick," she said as she sat down on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I have something to tell you." She looked at him with expectant eyes. He tightened his grip on her waist and gulped in anticipation.

"Yes, my love?" he couldn't fight back the grin. Beckett saw how hopeful he was and decided not to make this easy for him.

"I have to go to the bathroom." She kissed him on the cheek and headed for the bedroom, leaving Rick high and dry. Of course, she didn't really have to go to the bathroom, though. She took the ring off of the nightstand and put it on her finger and walked back to his office. She wondered how long it would take him to notice.

"Kate! The ring! It's on your finger. Does this mean?" well that was fast… she'd only taken two steps into the room.

"Yes, Rick. You are henceforth engaged to one Katherine Becket."

For once, the writer was completely speechless. Did he hear her right? He had braced himself to wait weeks, maybe months, for an answer.

"What?" he choked out. He stood up from his desk chair and began walking towards her.

"Do you remember when I told you that I was a one and done girl? You're my one and done Rick. This case really showed me that I can't waste my time and expect that you'll be here tomorrow waiting for me. I'm yours. Forever."

"And I am yours. Always." He took her in his arms. Both of them wore uncontrollable smiles. Forever and Always.

And then he was on her. And her on him.

They kissed fiercely, neither holding anything back. In minutes, their shirts were somewhere not on their bodies, neither one really paid attention as to where exactly they landed. Kate ripped their pants and underwear off and then stood back up to crash her lips upon his again. He picked her up and her legs wrapped around his waist. He cupped her ass in his hands as he found his way to the nearest wall, which happened to be a bookcase, and pressed her against it, moving his mouth to her jaw and ears and chest. He was everywhere. A moan escaped Kate's throat as two of his fingers slid into her.

"Oh, God!"

"Not quite, but you can call me Rick," he teased.

"Just get in me, Rick, NOW!" Her enthusiasm for him made him desperate for her, to be inside of her in the ultimate act of togetherness. But he wanted to hear her beg.

"Hmmm…. What happens if I do this?" Rick teased. He twisted his fingers _just so_, knowing full well that it would send her over the edge.

She cried out in pleasure, squirming in his arms. He sucked her breasts and stroked her clit, making it near impossible to come off her high from that earth-shattering orgasm.

"Rick, I need you now. Please!"

"What was that?" he gave her an evil grin and pressed his thumb harder against her clit.

"Please Rick! Please!"

"Well if you insist…" and he shoved his length inside of her, slamming her into the bookcase. It might have hurt if it didn't feel so damn good to have him inside of her at last. She reached her arms above her head, grabbing onto one of the shelves, keeping her legs secured around his waist.

She matched him thrust for thrust as he moved in her. He filled her perfectly and she felt so good to him. They both went over the edge, seeing everything but nothing all at the same time. Their orgasms his them harder than anything they had ever experienced. They screamed out, each other's names mixing with streams of various profanities.

They collapsed onto the floor, limbs intertwined, neither one completely sure what was Rick and what was Kate. When they finally found some semblance of coherency, Rick rolled on top of Kate, supporting himself on his elbows and kissed her lightly.

"That was…"

"Amazing," she finished.

"So, are we really getting married, or did you just say all that to take advantage of my ruggedly handsome body?"

"Hmm…. Definitely the second one," she kissed him back, "but I guess we can get married, too." She smiled and reached up to place a hand in his hair.

This moment was perfect, they thought. And they had the rest of their lives for moments like these. Forever and Always.


	17. Chapter 17

**Ahem… I have decided to do one more chapter and one short (I think it will be anyway) epilogue. So… uh… read onward then. And feel free to leave thoughts and whatnot after you read. **

**Oh, and sorry this took me so long. I meant to have it up days ago, but every time I sat to write more, I ended up deleting the whole thing and starting from scratch. So here we go, written in one sitting and six tries later, I bring you the final chapter (excluding the epilogue). I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: Castle and all of its characters are not mine.**

Approximately ten hours later, Kate stood in front of all her co-workers, hand in hand with Rick, as her face grew redder by the second. She did _not _want to make this announcement, but Rick was right. Everyone deserved to hear it from them and not the press (since Rick would permanently be removed from the city's most eligible bachelors list). She really hated being the center of attention, hated people looking at her, so she decided to ignore them all for now and look straight at Rick.

Rick cleared his throat, looking into the faces of their closest friends, Ryan and Esposito—wallets at the ready—Lanie, Kate's very best friend, who was always supportive of their relationship, he even looked into Gates' face, who turned out to have a little bit of a soft side. He took a deep breath, _here we go…_

"Everybody, we have some news…"

"Well duh, Castle! Get to the point!" Everybody chuckled at Lanie's comment. Except Lanie. She just wanted to hear the dirt. Kate hadn't even given her a hint, just sent a text telling her to get her ass upstairs and hear the news. Lanie knew by the adoring smile on Kate's face right now that it was big. She'd seen that look on Castle's face dozens of times, but rarely on Kate's. It was straight up pure love.

"Thanks Lanie. Well what I mean to say is that most of you know that Kate and I have had a bit of, what you've all told us, was sexually frustrating relationship for the last four years."

"That's an understatement, bro," called Esposito.

"You even had _me _sexually frustrated Castle," everybody turned to stare at Gates, wow she was really cutting loose these days.

"Umm… okay. Well, some of you know that recently this relationship had progressed into a romantic relationship. You all know that I love Kate with all my heart. You've been able to see that for years, and none of you kept it to yourselves. Well, by some miracle, Kate loves me back," he looked at her then, their eyes met and he resisted the overwhelming urge to stop talking and kiss her senseless, "I am not the type of man to waist a single minute of that, so I have asked Kate to marry me."

The room filled with gasps and "awwwws." Although Rick's speech was lovely, Kate was anxious to be out of the spotlight.

"And I said yes. The end." She started to walk away from the center of the room trying her best to ignore the very loud round of applause and the fact that Espo was slipping Ryan a fifty.

"Kiss her!" rang out a voice followed by a chorus of agreements. Before Kate registered what was happening, Rick pulled Kate in by her wrists and kissed her.

It was sweet. So sweet. Half the room stood awed. Lanie looked at Esposito and he took her hand. Kate's eyes fluttered closed and she forgot that more than a dozen people stood watching. Kate moved to deepen the kiss, and Rick complied. Her fingers entwined themselves in his hair and his hands pulled her waist closer. Where were they again?

Kate moved her leg to wrap around his waist. Ryan cleared his throat obnoxiously loud and Esposito whistled.

"Oh shit." Kate mumbled as she reluctantly pulled away, looking guiltily into Rick's eyes. She saw naked pride and love. And a little bit of lust.

Kate eventually made her way over to Lanie, who playfully smacked her for not keeping her informed.

"Girl, you have _got _to start keeping me in the loop!"

"I know, I know. I've just been so caught up in getting used to this whole thing, you know? We're moving so fast, and you'd think that would have me freaked out, and it did for a while, but I'm happy, really, really, happy." Kate could not keep the smile off her face.

"So how's he in the sack? Dynamite?" Lanie took one look at the blush on Kate's face and took it as a confirmation. "Thought so."

"He's just so perfect for me…"

"I told you so," Lanie replied in a singsong voice.

"Shut up Lanie." Kate rolled her eyes; of course, Lanie was right, as usual.

"Four years, Kate. I have to make up for _four years _of I told you so' s to make up for."

"So, how's Espo?" Kate had come a long way in being able to admit her feelings to Rick. She still found talking about it weird, though.

"You're trying to change the subject. Not happening."

"Trouble in paradise?" Kate so knew that wasn't true, but it would get Lanie talking about Espo instead of her and Rick.

"No. Be-lieve me. Things are _more _than alright. Last night was fantastic… Twice."

Gates walked up then, so things got slightly awkward. Even though Gates made a noticeable effort to show her human side more often, nobody wanted to talk about their sex lives with her.

"Congratulations, Kate. Mr. Castle is a good man. You'll be happy together."

"Uh... thanks sir." Gates just called Castle a 'good man?' What was up with her these days?

"Now, back to work."

"Yes, sir." Now _that _was more like it.

…

As it turned out, many questions had to be answered now that they were engaged.

Like when they should get married.

"Rick, I need to put my mother's murder to rest before we take this last step."

They sat cuddled up on the couch in _their _loft. They had just finished filling out the change of address papers (yes, papers, Rick insisted that sometimes filling out the paper is more satisfying than online) and Kate felt that she should just be honest about exactly when she would be able to marry him.

She feared that they would never solve the case, though. They seemed to keep hitting dead ends. Literally dead. Every lead, every suspect ended up six feet under.

"Then we have some work to do, then, don't we?" Rick figured that would be the case long before Kate had said it. He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and cupped her face.

"Really? You're not angry that I'm still making you wait?" She turned her face into his palm, kissing it ever so lightly.

"Kate, you told me a long time ago that you needed to put this to bed. I understand that completely. I love you, I would do anything for you and you know that. You need this, so I swear to you, we will find this son-of-a-bitch."

"Why are you so good to me?" She wrapped her arms tighter around Rick, pulling her face away from his hand and burying it in his neck. He was always so patient and understanding.

The unmistakable scent of cherries filled his nose and he found himself incapable of thought for a moment. He hoped that in fifty years he still wouldn't be immune to little shocks like these. Finally, he remembered his words.

"Because you are the best person to come into my life since Alexis' birth. Because you are the love of my life. Because I hate that something dares to hurt you in this world."

She saw the truth in his face, felt it in every ounce of his words.

"Thank you, Rick," she kissed him on the cheek, "this means so much to me."

"Always." He turned his face so his lips met hers. Once again, they got lost in each other and what started as an innocent kiss turned fervent in no time.

"Eww, guys, I know this is new love and all, but get a room." Alexis walked in wearing the dress she had bought with Kate, fiery hair pulled up, and very high silver heels.

"Aw, Pumpkin, you look stunning."

"Thanks, Dad. And thank you, Kate, for helping me pick it out."

"You're welcome, Alexis, it was fun and that dress is _perfect_. Have a great time tonight."

"But not too great, Pumpkin, okay?" He knew Alexis was mature and responsible, probably more than he was, but he still felt the need to be protective of his daughter. And he always would.

Kate looked at Rick, once again admiring just how great of a father he was. Then she looked back at Alexis and hoped that if she ever had a daughter that she would be a lot like Alexis.

Woah. A daughter? As in kids? Did she want kids?

Did they want kids?

Martha took a whole photo album's worth of pictures before Alexis was allowed to leave, then Martha, too, left for a night out. Leaving Rick and Kate on the couch in _their _loft.

Naturally, they made the most of their time alone by making up for the times they had been interrupted today.

Kate, who now straddled Rick on the couch, looked devilishly alluring. Their lips crashed together in a frenzy of passion. Rick moved his attention to her jaw and neck while his fingers worked at the buttons on her shirt. Kate threw her head back to grant him easier access, moaning in the process.

Rick discarded her shirt and bra in no time and took one of her breasts into her mouth. She arched her back and grinded her hips into his. She could feel his arousal rivaling her own. That was all it took for him to not want to prolong this any longer. He stood up, carrying Kate in his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist. She trailed kisses down his jaw and worked on removing some of his clothing while he carried them both to the bedroom.

He laid her down on the bed and began to unbutton her pants, her hips lifting up towards him in anticipation. He peeled them off slowly. Too slowly. Then he kissed her foot, and her ankle, and trailed a long line of kissed all the way up her leg and inner thigh, hovering over that spot where she wanted him most, skipping it, and continuing back down her other leg.

"You tease," she uttered, barely able to think the words, let alone speak them, in her bliss.

"Paybacks are a bitch, Kate." He was right between her legs, centimeters away from _that_ spot. The vibrations of his voice drove her wild.

Then, he stuck out his tongue and lightly flicked her clit with it.

"Ugggghhhhh, Rick, I need you."

He continued to use his mouth to please her while he reached down and removed his own pants. Kate's eyes closed. Her arms were spread above her head and her hair, long and wavy, was messily strewn about her head. When he stopped for a moment, however, her eyes snapped open to look at him.

She hadn't even realized it when he shed his pants, so when she saw him watching her, positioned at her entrance, with all the love in the world written across his face, she was surprised.

Before he moved into her wet heat, though, he whispered, barely audible, but spoke volumes, "I love you, Kate."

"I love you, Rick, I need you."

And with that he entered her. Together, they moved. Together, they came closer and closer to the edge. And together, they flew into oblivion.

Rick pulled out of her and collapsed beside her. He pulled her close and her head found its natural place on his chest. She wrapped one leg around him, and they stayed like that for a while, reveling in the silence—in their unbelievable powerful love.

Kate's thoughts eventually drifted to her thoughts back on the couch before Alexis left. Did she want children? They. Did they want children? Rick was an amazing father, but he'd been there already. He had a fantastic child, and he'd been through all the raising a kid stuff before. It's not like she turned out badly, so there were no mistakes to go back and fix. What if they wanted two different things? She didn't really _need_ kids, though, did she? She could deal without them. Either way, it was a conversation that had to be had eventually.

"Rick…" she began hesitantly.

"Mmmm…" He wrapped his arm tighter around her.

"Do you… we… umm… what about kids?" She rushed the end of her statement, immediately wanting to take it back. Maybe now wasn't the right time for this talk… His arm left her and went to his head. She was all but having an internal panic attack. "You know what, never mind. I take it back. You have Alexis. It's fine."

"Kate..."

"No, seriously, you probably don't want to go through the midnight feedings or the crying ever again. It's cool."

"Kate."

"Never mind, I don't want to talk about it." She turned her face in and clutched tighter to Rick's chest.

"Kate, I would love kids, or kid." He kissed the top of her head and placed his arm back around her shoulder. "You are going to be a great mom someday, and there's nobody in the world that I'd rather have a baby with than you."

"Are you sure? I mean, you've already been there. Do you really want to go through that again?"

"Go through it? Looking into a brand new life for the first time and knowing that you were part of making that life, looking into that little baby's face and holding her and seeing how tiny she is, it will be _amazing_. Holding her and knowing that someday she could cure cancer, or do a thousand other fantastic things. Or maybe we'll have a boy and he'll have all the same potential. And I can take him fishing or take him to ball games. And either way, we can read to the little one together, lots and lots of Dr. Seuss, of course. And we can tuck him or her in at night, we're going to have so much fun! "

In the middle of Rick's speech, Kate turned her head to look at him. There was this expression of sheer excitement on his face. It was adorable. He looked almost childish talking about their future son or daughter. She loved that look. It was so innocent, so completely him. She wondered if their kid would produce looks like those.

"So we're going to do this? After we get married?" Rick just made parenting sound better than she ever imagined. Maybe it was a good thing that he was already a parent. He would know how to do things and they wouldn't have to constantly wing it. Her ever-growing hopeful smile glistened, even in the dark, melting Rick's heart. They would be good at this, he thought. And this time, he wouldn't have to do it alone, he would have Kate to share all the good times and the milestones as well as the tough times.

"I am in. I am all in. Kate, we're going to be the best parents in the whole world!"

Both of them smiled giddily at each other in the dark, imagining their futures. They both thought of the good times they would have and their amazing baby who could do a million things. They both thought of holding that baby for the first time. How they would love that baby. Although they had time ahead of them before a baby came into play, they both already loved that baby. It was a symbol of their love and their passion. A symbol of all they had come through in the past four years and all the years ahead. Simply, it was a symbol of them.

Kate reached up to Rick's face to kiss him. He rolled on top of her, supporting his weight with his elbows. Kate could feel something hard poking her inner thigh.

"Practice does make perfect."


	18. Chapter 18

**Well, here we go… the last installment of this story. I hope you've enjoyed reading it, I know I enjoyed writing it. Thank you for everyone who reviewed and added this story to their alerts or favorites, you're all wonderful! I hope you like the epilogue. Let me know what you think.**

**It's been great,**

**Becka.**

**Disclaimer: Castle is not mine. I'm just head over heels for the Caskett ship.**

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><p>One year, five months, two weeks, and several hours later, Kate Beckett stood in the back of a church. When she came out of this church, she would be Kate Castle.<p>

She smiled as the music started. She was-for the first time in thirteen years-truly content, and truly happy. The people responsible for her shooting and her mother's murder were behind bars for the rest of their lives. The day they had caught them was the day they set a date for the wedding.

Lanie, the maid of honor of course, turned to face the bride, "You look radiant, Kate." She handed Kate her flowers and hugged her best friend. "Oh, and I told you so," she added with a loving smirk.

"Thanks, Lanie." The thank you was loaded with the meaning of a 'thank you for putting up with me' as Kate reflected on how Lanie really was right all along, even after the hours she had spent complaining about Castle to her at the beginning, Lanie had always supported Beckett and Castle.

Kate clutched her father's arm as the procession began to move. Jim Beckett smiled at his daughter, noticing the difference in her as of late. Ever since Castle came into her life, the walls she spent years building started to crumble. Now that the scum responsible for killing his wife and almost killing her daughter were taken care of, that wall had completely come down. He couldn't thank Castle enough for bringing his daughter back to him. He kissed her temple and they began to move.

The whole church turned to look at Kate.

Ryan and Esposito (the joint Best Men) froze as they looked at Beckett. She was practically their sister, and they felt nothing but love and respect for her as she glided down the aisle.

Martha and Alexis looked at the newest addition to their family. They loved her and welcomed her warmly and openly. Kate really had become almost mother-like to Alexis over the past year, offering help and guidance whenever Alexis didn't feel comfortable going to her father.

Rick's jaw dropped when he saw her. He forgot to breathe. He knew she was beautiful, but nothing should be allowed to look _that _amazing. It took everything he had not to run towards her right then and there. Their eyes met and their smiles grew, his heart almost physically aching from the overwhelming amount of love he felt for her right now.

And while everybody else was looking as Kate, Kate looked at Rick. The man who broke down her walls. The man who ran after her when she ran away. The man who fixed her when she was broken. The first man to genuinely love her for all that she really was. Her man. Her heart skipped a beat when they locked eyes and she tried desperately to keep her pace and not sprint into his arms as fast as she could.

As they looked into each other's eyes, vowing their lives and love for each other, the whole room was awed by the intensity of their eyes and the sincerity of their words. Everybody there knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, at that moment, that these two would make it.

And they did.

They were one of those few couples who love each other senseless until the end.

They had a beautiful daughter named Johanna, who didn't cure cancer, but they loved her all the same.

They continued to be the Detective and the Writer: crime solving duo, until Kate's retirement from the force as the most accomplished female detective in NYPD history.

Rick continued to write, Nikki Heat becoming his best-selling series ever.

They had fun and exciting days and long passionate nights.

They had lazy days where they didn't do anything.

All the while, they never got tired of the electricity between them, in simple touches or loving glances. The never got used to the feeling of the other's touch on them or in them. Their feelings for each other never grew desensitized, and Kate's stomach still flipped every time he said the words "I love you," and they said it often, meaning every word.

And at the end, after loving each other for fifty years, it still wasn't enough time together. When Kate could no longer be independent, Rick took care of her, bathing and dressing and feeding her, taking her to the doctor's and the hospital, holding her hand as she drifted off into that next world. He whispered those three words he had said the last time he watched her die so many years ago, "I love you."

And this time, just before the lights went out, she answered him, "Always."

A tear rolled down his face when her hand went limp in his. "Forever," he choked out.

He died two weeks later. The doctors called it old age, but his two daughters knew better. Richard Castle died of a broken heart. He died so he could be together with her.

And they were. Rick and Kate: forever and always.

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><p><em><strong>THE END.<strong>_


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